Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - Building Permits in Edmonton Still Slow Compared to 2010

This past April saw an increase in the number of building permits issued when compared to March. But building starts still lag behind what they were during the same time period in 2010. According to Statistics Canada, Edmonton registered $339.3 million in building permits in April, which is 17.1 percent higher than March. The gains were attributed to activity in the residential and commercial sectors. But comparing this April with the same month in 2010 shows a 39 percent drop in starting permits.

Province wide, April saw $954.4 million worth of building permits, a 9.7 percent increase over March but a 17.1 percent decrease from April in 2010. Residential permits accounted for $629.8 million, up 11.5 percent from March and down only 0.3 percent from April of last year. It was the non-residential sector that took the brunt of the decline. April of 2011 saw $329.6 million in permits, and increase of 6.3 percent from March but a 37.8 percent decrease from April of last year.

Will Vant Veld, who is an economist with ATB Financial, notes that residential permits are not back to their pre recession levels. But he is optimistic since the number of permits appears to be holding steady. This years numbers are being compared with last years overheated real estate market, spurred on in part by changes in government regulations.

Across the nation, April saw $5.3 billion in building permits issued, down 19.7 percent from April of 2010. Permits were also down 21.1 percent from March of 2010.