Houses in Aberdeen are getting snatched up by buyers.

(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)

KAMLOOPS - While the Kamloops real estate market warms up, building permits remain below last year’s numbers.

Most notably, higher priced homes in the city are starting to sell, Kamloops and District Real Estate Association Board President Katherine Rutherford says.

“One of the driving forces is we’re seeing Vancouver or Lower Mainland homeowners moving up here,” she says. “We’ll start seeing those folks heading out to Kelowna, Vernon, Shuswap area.”

According to statistics from the association, there were 320 residential sales in Kamloops in April 2016, 91 more than the same month in 2015. Of those, 39 were sales over $480,000, up from 23 the year before, Rutherford says.

The Vancouver housing boom is spreading, she says, with prices in Chilliwack going straight up. In Kamloops Rutherford has spoken to association members who are talking to investors and clients from Vancouver and the Lower Mainland about property here. Homes which might fetch $400,000 here are going for over $1 million here, she notes.

Though housing sales are up, building permits are still behind last year's marks as far as total value. The city reported $2.5 million less in commercial building permits last month when compared to April 2015. Residential permits for April 2016 were also behind 2015 in value by nearly $2 million, though there was a higher quantity of permits issued this April.

Other types of permits are about even compared to last year in quantity, but were valued higher, with April 2016 values coming in at $1.45 million, or more than four times the amount in 2015.

Year-to-date, 2016 is more than $30 million behind 2015, with 69 fewer permits.

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