An astonishing $43 million dollars worth of construction permits have been sent in Nanaimo just within the first month of 2022.
“There’s been a significant increase between 2016 and 2021,” said Mayor Leonard Krog. “The city issued building permits for 6,463 dwelling units— that’s apartments, condos, houses, whatever the case may be. Last year we had another record year for construction permits; we hit $272 million. Anything over $200 million is a big year in Nanaimo. In 2019 it was the record year with $445 million, but as of the end of January in this year alone… We issued permits totalling $43 million.”
The $43 million will be for various buildings, but will include 175 dwelling units. Krog says if the trend continues for the rest of this year— which he doubts— it could end up breaking a new record at $500 million worth of permits.
“The fact we issued $43 million in the first month also tells people how much pressure our staff are under and why we’ve taken steps to improve our permitting process.”
Krog says that what draws people to Nanaimo is the house prices, as despite the inventory shortage, it isn’t as expensive compared to Metro Vancouver.
The benchmark for a single family home in Nanaimo’s benchmark price rose by 32 percent in December, reaching $790,000.
