A rapid pace of rental apartment, condominium, townhome and single-family-dwelling construction saw the City of Langford deliver more housing between 2016 and 2021 than the City of Victoria, Saanich, Oak Bay and Esquimalt, combined.

 

 

Statistics Canada data, released as part of the 2021 census, shows a housing stock increase of 5,062-units within the municipality to 19,968 from 14,906 in 2016. The total volume of new housing across the entirety of the Victoria CMA, or Census Metropolitan Area, was 14,115-units, a rise from 172,559 five-years-ago to 186,674.

 

With a population of 46,584, the City of Langford represents less than 12% of the CMA population, but its new housing amounted to nearly 36% of all housing delivered in the region between 2016 and 2021. The runner-up was Victoria-proper with a population representing 23% of the Capital’s total (91,867 people), with an increase in housing units to 53,070 from 49,212, a difference of 3,858 (27% of all new units).

 

Langford’s housing boom supported the municipality’s population growth at a meteoric rate of 31.8%, propelling its resident base by 11,232 people to 46,584 from 35,342, capturing 38% of the CMA’s 2016-2021 growth of 29,467 people.

 

Over the last five years, the Capital’s urban municipalities bordering the City of Victoria plus the city-proper delivered 4,799-units of housing, lagging the City of Langford by 263-units. Combined, the four municipalities of Victoria, Saanich, Oak Bay and Esquimalt represent 62% of the region’s population, or 245,125 people out of 397,237.

 

Tempered population growth among the urban four districts of 9,436 people was an increase of 4% from 235,689 in 2016, with Esquimalt and Oak Bay losing residents between censuses.

 

In terms of housing stock expansion, not all inventory is considered equal as local politicians and housing advocates encourage urbanization of already built-up neighbourhoods rather than encroachment beyond urban containment boundaries, or, in the case of Victoria’s suburban municipalities, urban sprawl into greenfield or undeveloped terrain.

 

Despite regional mayors agreeing a lack of new homes has created a crisis and affordability continues to pose a problem for renters and would-be homeowners alike, much maligned are development patterns in the Capital's West Shore. Such criticisms, however, may be unwarranted based on the development styles and patterns that have taken shape in recent years.

 

Citified's data, in fact, shows the West Shore is densifying its already-developed neighbourhoods at a much faster rate than expansion through urban sprawl, and in the case of Langford, significantly more housing was built as urban infill than as suburban sprawl.

 

While Langford saw some traditional urban sprawl on the edges of the city’s already urbanized areas, the majority of its new housing stock comprised, in fact, of high density infill apartments, condominiums and townhomes.

 

Urban infill lead to the construction of nearly 3,500-units of high density housing concentrated throughout the city’s downtown area and the Millstream Road, Sooke Road and Goldstream Avenue corridors, according to Citified's construction data tracking. A further 1,500-units were represented by a mix of townhomes, single-family-residences, and secondary suites.

 

Sooke and Colwood, which added nearly 1,700-units of housing between them, saw development patterns similar to those of Langford with infill and densification rising in prevalence over urban sprawl, particulary in Colwood.

 

According to Langford Mayor Stew Young, the charted course for Langford’s continued growth will be in the form of highrise residential towers earmarked for the downtown core and a continued proliferation of high density residential blocks. Currently in planning, the mayor says, are half a dozen towers with heights at upwards of 24-storeys as the municipality pivots away from urban sprawl development forms in favour of densification.

 

As a share of regional new housing, the West Shore as a whole delivered 6,786-units concentrated primarily in Langford (5,062), Sooke (832) and Colwood (821). The total share of new housing was 48% for populations totalling 88,170 people, or 22% of the Capital Region's total.

 

Meanwhile, the relatively subdued housing growth in the urban zones of the south Island can be largely attributed to long permitting and approvals processes at the hands of municipal governments, density limitations set by local governments and backed by community organizations, and the costs of delivering housing according to terms and conditions set by municipalities.

 

Efforts to increase density within the City of Victoria are currently focused on doing away with single-family-dwelling (SFD) zoning to permit up to six-units on an SFD parcel, eliminating public feedback components of approvals processes for proposals meeting official community plan visions and planning guidelines, and a fast-tracking of below-market or affordable projects. C

 

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