The Capital Region's rate of new home construction is lagging sharply behind population growth, according to 2016 Canada census data released by Statistics Canada.

 

Over the last five years the pace of residential construction relative to newcomers arriving in the Capital and natural population growth shows a disparity of 3.5%, with the population having increased by 6.7% (from 344,315 residents to 367,770) while total housing stock grew by only 3.2% (167,229-units to 172,559).

 

Expanding the population growth and new home construction window to ten years, Victoria’s population grew 11.4% between 2006 and 2016 while the supply of housing increased by less than 11.2%.

 

Among the region’s full-time residences, of which there are 162,716 as of the 2016 census, 39.5% (64,235-units) are in the form of detached single-family dwellings. Of 2011’s 153,328 full-time residences, 41.8% (64,100-units) were detached single-family homes. In 2006 single-family homes represented 42.5% (61,808-units) of all housing.

 

Apartments, both in duplex structures and traditional multi-family buildings, now account for 80,255-units of housing among full-time residences, an increase from 46.3% in 2006 to 49.3% in 2016. Row houses (known also as townhomes or townhouses) inched up slightly from 6% of overall housing stock a decade ago to 6.3% today (10,205-units).

 

Full-time residences in buildings that have five or more storeys rose sharply to 10,400-units in 2016 from 7,600-units in 2006, an increase of 37%. Such dwellings now account for 6.4% of all homes.

 

Statistics Canada has also noted that 8,720-units of housing require “major repairs.” Last year Citified published a report identifying over 20,000-units of rental residences that are in-store for major renovations or which could be demolished due to age by the year 2025. The report identified the growing need to increase the region’s rental housing stock to avoid “renoviction” scenarios that displace tenants with nowhere to turn for housing.

 

According to Citified’s data, currently under construction throughout the Capital Region are over 2,500 purpose-built rental apartments, over 1,700-units of condominiums and several hundred single-family homes (including townhomes). C