Durham sees development surge continue throughout 2017
The City of Oshawa was by far the largest contributing local municipality to the development boom, surpassing $600 million in building permits for the first time, and also setting numerous additional records.
By Dave Flaherty/The Oshawa Express
Building activity in Durham Region saw a jump of more than 20 per cent in 2017.
According a regional report, the total value of building permits issued across the municipality was $1.96 billion last year, up from $1.63 billion in 2016.
About $1.38 billion of that is attributed to residential permits, up 8.7 per cent from the previous year.
The City of Oshawa was by far the largest contributing local municipality, surpassing $600 million in building permits for the first time, and also setting numerous additional records.
Clarington was second just shy of $400 million, while the Town of Whitby and City of Pickering both issued around $300 million in building permits.
With 4,468 new residential units in 2017, the region experienced a 16 per cent increase from 2016 when 3,845 units were built.
Of those new units, 1,625 were townhouses, 1,538 single-detached homes, 1,144 apartment units and 161 semi-detached homes.
Oshawa accounted for 38.9 per cent, or 1,736, of the new residential units, an increase of 92.2 per cent. The total value was pegged at $483.6 million.
The number of housing starts (46.3 per cent), completions (45.3 per cent) and absorptions (88 per cent) were up dramatically as well.
The housing market was not the only one heating up, as the value of non-residential building permits increased by 61 per cent to $582.6 million overall in 2017.
Major permits awarded in Oshawa last year include two new elementary schools valued at $21.2 million, a $6.3 million addition to Eastdale CVI, a $6.7 million Canada Post distribution centre, and a $6 million transformer station.
In all, $130.8 million in non-residential permits were handed out for Oshawa projects, a slight increase of 6.6 per cent.
The building boom in Durham has been no different than the rest of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) as building permit values were up 13.5 per cent across the board.
Durham Region accounted for six per cent of all building permits and 11 per cent of new housing starts in the GTHA.
Building activity numbers for the first half of 2018 were not yet available.