The number of building permits issued for new homes returned to normal in Lambton County during the first half of this year after soaring during the pandemic.
The county’s building services department, which looks after building permits and inspections for nine of Lambton’s 11 municipalities, reported this month that the total of 114 new-home permits issued in the first six months of 2022 was down from 231 during the same period in 2021 .
Sarnia and Lambton Shores have their own building inspection departments.
“Through the pandemic we were extremely busy,” said Corrine Nauta, manager of the county’s building services department.
In 2020, the department issued a total of 187 new-home building permits, and that jumped to 336 in 2021.
“Overall, this is about our normal but steady rate,” Nauta said about this year’s numbers.
“We thought the pandemic was going to slow things down” but that didn’t happen in the housing sector, she said.
Plympton-Wyoming had the highest number of new housing starts in the first half of 2022 with 41. That’s down from 73 in the same period the year before.
St. Clair Township was next with 31, down from 61 in the first half of 2021, and Petrolia was third with 18, down from 71 the year before, according to a report prepared by the county department.
Nauta said she expects home building activity will increase in the second half of this year, with builders expected to begin work soon in new subdivisions opening in a few Lambton communities.
The tight supply of construction materials may have delayed work preparing some subdivisions for homebuilders, but building has begun in a new subdivision in St. Clair Township, Nauta said.
“We’ve already issued over 30 permits for that one,” she said.
Site preparations continue at the Errol Woods subdivision in Plympton-Wyoming.
“They’re trucking in all the granular and getting ready to get the roads done,” Nauta said. “We do have a lot of builders anxious to get going in that subdivision.
The first phase of Errol Woods on Fleming Road “went in about three years ago and it’s done,” she said.
“This is the second phase which is double the size.”
There are a few other small development areas in Lambton “and we’re starting to see permits for those,” Nauta said.
“We’re getting one and two, here and there,” she said.
“Things are a bit slower but we’re very optimistic that, come fall, when materials are starting to become more readily available, things are going to take off again.”
The total value of construction permits issued by the county in the first half of 2022 was $88.9 million. That compares to $119.6 million during the same period in 2021, according to the report.