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New housing starts in the City of Kelowna continue to be heavily focused on apartment construction.
The construction of new apartments accounted for over 80% of total housing starts in the Kelowna area for August, according to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
Through the first eight months of 2018, construction on single, semi-detached, row and apartment homes has combined for 1,771 total new housing starts in Kelowna.
Of those 1,771 housing starts in Kelowna this year, 1,100 have been apartment units, with construction beginning on 271 new apartment units last month.
While builders have been very busy in Kelowna during 2018, the numbers still fall well short of 2017's record setting construction pace.
“Despite a very strong August for housing starts in the Kelowna CMA, the first 8 months of 2018 have seen a decrease of 29% in the single-detached segment and 28% in the multi-unit segment, relative to the record year of housing construction seen in 2017,” says CMHC senior analyst, Taylor Pardy.
“Despite this decrease in construction activity, the pace of housing starts in 2018 remains well above the 10-year average.”
Kelowna's apartment construction numbers are a good sign for the city's dismal rental vacancy rate of 0.2%, which was the lowest rate in all of Canada as of late 2017.
During August, construction was completed on 11 apartment units, bringing the total number of finished apartment units to 707 for this year.
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