CMHC reports Greater Victoria’s 4,129 housing starts from January to October 2025 are 23% higher than the 3,359 starts in 2024. The vast majority are condos/apts at 3,377 up from 2,766 last year. These are mostly projects that were in the hopper a year, two-or-more ago. They benefit from economy of scale as construction costs continue to be enormously high due to govt costs like DCC’s, ACC’s, permit fees, regulatory hurdles and slow approval processes.
New single family homes at 238, are slightly lower than 247 last year, but still much lower than the 567 five years ago, representing a 56% decline. Duplexes/row (missing middle) housing is up 49% over last year from 346 to 514. Compared with 2020, missing middle is also up 44% from 356. It is becoming apparent that Bill 44 – provincial rezoning municipalities to accommodate missing middle housing is having an impact. Despite protests from some municipalities, their zoning bylaws appear to be responsible for obstructing small density housing suitable for families. Some municipalities are using high fees, setbacks, etc to continue to obstruct missing middle housing. The BC govt recently introduced legislation “to prevent local governments from excluding zones where small-scale, multi-unit housing should be allowed or making further restrictions that make it more difficult to build anything other than single-family or duplex housing for communities with more than 5,000 people, and within urban-containment boundaries.”
Year-to-date, Langford leads in new home construction at 1,340 units followed by Victoria 1,052, Saanich 606, Colwood 575, Esquimalt 208, Sooke 181, Oak Bay 60, Central Saanich 35, Sidney 28, North Saanich 13, View Royal 3, Highlands 2, Metchosin 0.
Presently 47% of the CRD’s new housing is in two West Shore communities – Langford and Colwood. They also have 61% of all missing middle housing such as townhomes and duplexes, as well as 38% of new single family homes.
Municipalities clearly not pulling their weight are View Royal, Metchosin, Highlands, North Saanich, Central Saanich, Sidney. Most have anti-housing councils and North Saanich declined to meet with BC’s housing ministry staff to discuss the municipality missing their housing targets and deficiencies in their reports.
The Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs appears to be ignoring some municipalities’ intransigence when it comes to contributing to housing in the community.