Last year was the city’s biggest building boom ever, topping record-breaking construction that has risen consistently since 2020.
Advertisement 2
Article content
But, there were signs the surge may be coming to an end.
Article content
“It can’t go on forever,” Brantford’s chief building official Andy McMahon said on Thursday.
“At some point it’s going to tap off and maybe it already has.”
McMahon noted that the third and fourth quarters of 2023 were slower and developers have hit the brakes on a previous rush to build new housing units.
“Industrial, commercial and institutional numbers are still strong but housing has dropped. Interest rates are slowing things down.”
While there were 1,481 houses, apartments, and multi-unit homes built in 2022, that number dropped to 611 in 2023.
The hardest hit was the single-detached family home sector, which went from 452 new builds in 2022 to 183 in 2023.
Advertisement 3
Article content
In total, new housing was more than cut in half, going from 538 permits for work valued at $358.6 million in 2022 to 227 permits issued for work estimated at $160.3 million last year.
McMahon said the housing starts were so drastically high in 2022 that a drop was expected.
Brantford is one of the communities where the province has set a housing target, pushing the municipality to create 10,000 new units in 10 years.
“Still, in 2022 and 2023 together, we issued 2,100 permits for new units, so we’re on pace for that.”
And, McMahon noted, the city cannot force developers to build new houses.
“We’ve had a very good year and are expecting this year to also be a very good year but I’m not going to say it’s going to be a record. It’s really up to the developers.
Advertisement 4
Article content
“Our job is to assist them in processing applications and getting permits and we do everything we can to move their projects along.”
After a blip in 2005 when building permit values hit $211.8, the construction values stayed under $200 million in Brantford until 2020 when they soared to $255.2 million.
Since then it’s been a steady increase in projects to $472.3 million in 2021; $538.1 million in 2022; and $550.9 million last year.
Last year, industrial work was the star, with construction values estimated at $196 million for 43 projects around the city – more than three times the value of work in 2022.
Institutional and government work also exceeded the previous year, with 36 permits granted for work estimated at $101.8 million – a huge jump from the previous year’s $12.9 million in work.
Advertisement 5
Article content
Some of the biggest projects approved in 2023 included:
The new Barry Callebaut chocolate manufacturing facility on Bowery Road, valued at $93 million.
- A $70 million project to create a new six-storey retirement home and three-storey long-term care home on Lynden Road.
- The new Costco warehouse at the Lynden Park Mall, valued at $33.5 million
- An addition to Mitsui High-Tec on Fen Ridge, valued at $25 million.
- A new industrial warehouse at 151 Garden Ave., valued at $32.4 million.
- And a Metrus Construction logistics center on Fen Ridge, valued at $16 million.
A new development by LIV was granted a series of building permits in July and September that totaled more than $21 million for a survey that will eventually include 245 block townhouses at 620 Colborne St. West.
LIV’s plan for the two-part Sienna Woods project is a mixture of condominiums, townhouses and semi-detached homes.
@EXPSGamble
Article content