Nearly 1,500-units of condominiums and rental apartments currently under construction in downtown Victoria are expected to complete this year and next, according to Citified’s construction data.

 

By the numbers, 2018’s planned condominium completions include the 215-unit Jukebox on View Street at Vancouver street, the 88-unit Legato tower in the 900-block of Yates Street, the 32-unit Cityzen Residences underway in Chinatown on Herald Street near Government Street and the 75-unit Black and White condominium on Cook Street at Fort Street.

 

This year will also be one for the books for new-build rental inventory with the completion of Chard Development’s 209-unit Yello on Yates tower in the 800-block of Yates Street and Cox Development’s 134-unit V1488 tower on Pandora Avenue at Cook Street. A heritage conversion of a commercial building in the 500-block of Fort Street will also yield nine-units.

 

All in, last year's approximately 330 completed units will more than double in 2018 and the trend is expected to continue.

 

2019 is expected to reach just shy of 2018’s total when some 740-units receive occupancy status. 2019 project completions will include the 102-unit Wade condominium on Cook Street at Johnson Street, the 195-unit BlueSky Victoria purpose-built rental complex along the 1000-block of Pandora Avenue, the luxury 57-unit Customs House condominium on Government Street at Humboldt Street, Vancouver Island’s new tallest building – the 176-unit Hudson Place One condominium tower – and the two-tower 989 condominium development along Johnson Street at Vancouver Street comprised of 206-units.

 

New housing inventory in 2020 will largely depend on construction activity slated to start this year, although preliminary data suggests several hundred units will enter the market on the low end of the spectrum while as many as 700 could materialize if additional projects get underway by mid-2018.

 

Downtown Victoria’s current pace of housing construction appears to bolster Mayor Lisa Helps’ assertion that as many as 10,000 new residents could call downtown Victoria home by 2030. Provided the downtown core’s housing inventory can continue to grow by an average of 500-units per year, that just may be the case. However, several industry experts have cited figures between 5,000 and 6,000-units, or 6,000 to 8,000 residents, as a more workable target by the end of the next decade. C