CMHC reports Greater Victoria’s 4,859 housing starts in 2025 are 16% higher than the 4,185 starts in 2024. The vast majority are condos/apts at 3,951 up from 3,411 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.
The CMHC report shows a slight increase in single family homes from 298 in 2024 to 309 in 2025. However, that’s still a significant drop from 694 in 2020 – a decline of 55%. VRBA’s Crystal Ball Housing Forecast held January 14, 2026 anticipates a slowdown in 2026, partly due to the highest supply of unsold units in 35 years. This is presently an opportunity for homebuyers, as housing starts will likely decline in the next year or two.
Duplexes/row (missing middle) housing is up 26% over last year from 476 to 599. Compared with 2020, missing middle is also up 35% from 444. Bill 44 – provincial rezoning municipalities to accommodate missing middle housing is having an impact. There are 230 more new homes in 2025 than in 2023 before Bill 44 was passed. Despite protests from some municipalities, their zoning bylaws appear to be responsible for obstructing small density housing suitable for families. However the 230 additional units from Bill 44 represent only 4.7% of the 4,859 total new homes in 2025.
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.”
A new study reveals the CRD’s proposed DCCs for a water supply project undermine new housing in Greater Victoria. A letter and the study commissioned by the Urban Development Institute, Victoria Residential Builders Association and West Shore Developers Association was sent to the CRD board. The CRD water commission ignored the housing affordability challenges and voted to add up to $9,044 per new home. The commission members voting to increase the cost of housing are: Jeremy Caradonna, Nathalie Chambers, Sara Duncan, Chris Graham, Steve Gray, Stephen Hammond, Karen Harper, Susan Kim, Tim Morrison, Teale Phelps Bondaroff, John Rogers, Mary Wagner, Al Wickheim, Susan Brice. Muncipal elections are October 17, 2026.
In 2025, there were 1,473 new homes in Victoria of which 1,423 were condos/apts. Langford has 1,386 new units including the largest number of single family homes at 67 and 223 missing middle homes. Saanich 736, Colwood 634, Esquimalt 209, Sooke 209, Oak Bay 67, Central Saanich 46, Sidney 30, North Saanich 16, View Royal 3, Metchosin 3, Highlands 2.
Presently 41.5% of the CRD’s new housing is in two West Shore communities – Langford and Colwood. They also have 59% of all missing middle housing such as townhomes and duplexes, as well as 32% 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 numbers also highlight the absurdity of the BC government’s housing targets, which View Royal is claiming to exceed with only 3 new homes in 2025.
The Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs appears to be ignoring some municipalities’ intransigence when it comes to contributing to housing in the community. In addition, the BC govt’s claims to support housing affordability are not credible when they approve DCC bylaw increases of 258% as they did last year in Victoria.