PRINCE GEORGE – Whether it’s multi-family dwellings of single-family dwellings, commercial conStruction, private or public, development in Prince George is, once again, set to break records again this year.
Here’s the picture year to date:
January – April 2020 2021 2022
Permits/Value Permits/Value Permits/Value
SFD New 16/$7.4 mill 36/$19 mill 33/$17.5 mill
Multi New 9/$1.5 mill 9/$13 mill 8/$5.6 mill
Commercial New NA 3/$2 mill 7/$28.5 mill
“When you’re investing that much into construction, into building, you’re anticipating that there are people who are going to buy,” says Councillor Garth Frizzell. “So the people who are creating this are seeing forward to a market that is robust for the years to come. It’s not just responding to the Housing Needs report that we got in December or the ones we got in years past. This is an ongoing trend.”
But the most recent employment stats show Prince George has some of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. At 3.8 percent, everyone who wants to work is working. But with construction trending upward, there’s a problem on all fronts.
“You talk to any trade out there and it’s hard to find qualified labour,” explains Allen Creuzot with Creuzot Homes & Construction. “Supply chain issues. Even just fibreglass tubs. Getting stuff like that. ICF blocks. There are certain things that are so far down to get. When you’re starting to build a house now, you really have to plan a whole lot differently than we did a few years ago.”
Al Creuzot says the growth has been steadily growing. Despite those challenges, builders continue to build but, unlike years ago, we may be building ourselves out of house and home.
“As far as the new housing, as long as people are still moving here – which we’ve been wanting for a long time – but be careful what you wish for because now we’ve got that and our prices are getting to where people are saying ‘This is unsustainable.’ How are we going to continue this?”
The price of housing has risen like never before due to things like the cost of materials and developers sturggle to build apartments, for example, that are affordable.
“It’s a tough gig,” says Creuzot. Because at the end of the day, you’re in business to be in business. So you have to make money. People say rents are out of this world. How can you justify that? Well if you were on the other side of the coin and had to pay interest payments and everything else, what goes into building a fifty or seventy unit apartment building, there’s an awful lot.”
However, the City is anticipating yet another record year for permits and the value of those to continue to rise.
