Just shy of 1,100-units of purpose-built rental housing was completed in 2021 while a further 3,000-units are under construction with delivery slated for 2022 through 2024, according to Citified’s construction activity tracking.

 

 

The City of Colwood on Victoria’s West Shore led the way this year with over 350 unit completions, all of which took place in the burgeoning Colwood Corners area centred on Sooke Road at Goldstream Avenue. Two-thirds of the inventory was affordable housing.

 

In second place came the City of Victoria with 330 purpose-built rental completions, one-third of which were allocated to senior living in a high-end retirement project. None of the completions in 2021 were earmarked as below market or affordable units.

 

Langford – which delivered more rental housing per-capita over the last five years than any other south Island municipality at over 3,000 completed units compared to the City of Victoria's 2,600-units – added 229 rentals this year. All were market housing.

 

Sooke saw a small increase in rentals in the form of a townhome project totalling 20-units.

 

 

According to Citified's data, Langford's share of purpose-builty rental construction since 2015 and the start of the most recent rental housing construction boom amounts to nearly 40% of the region's approximately 7,800 newly completed units, despite the municipality's population amounting to roughly 10% of the Capital Region's total. As a share of new rental housing, the West Shore added nearly 50% of the region's rental housing while home to less than one-third of the population.

 

Currently under construction, meanwhile, are an additional 3,000-units from Sooke to Sidney, not including 783-beds of student housing at the University of Victoria. The university is building two mixed-use towers rising in place of older dormitories that will net an additional 621 beds for students by mid-to-late 2023.

 

Among the 3,000-units under construction, over 800 are on the West Shore, 1,900 are within the Capital’s urban core (some 550 of which are in downtown Victoria) and nearly 300 are on the Saanich Peninsula.

 

In the planning stage are a further 15,000-units of purpose-built rental inventory spanning the housing spectrum from below-market affordable and supportive homes, to mid and high-end inventory, according to Citified’s data.

 

To view active purpose-built rental construction activity in your neighbourhood and througout the south Island, use Citified's comprehensive rental data portal to search for projects, view projects on a map, and browse archived project completions dating back to 2015. C

 

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