(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)
February 10, 2016 - 11:30 AM
KAMLOOPS - A dip in building permit numbers in the first month of 2016 is likely an anomaly, a city official says.
“This is unique this year because the building code changes came into effect December 2014,” Kamloops building official Kundar Bubbar says. “So (contractors) wanted to get the permit under the old building code.”
He says the increased permit applications in 2014, before the code changed, affected January 2016 permit numbers. People who applied under the old code permits were given until December 2015 to pick them up and use them, meaning 2015 numbers were also higher.
“We gave them a reasonable amount of time to pick it up,” Bubbar says, adding the first couple months of 2016 will likely have lower numbers.
There were only six permits issued for new residential buildings in January, compared to 28 last January. However, last year 20 of those permits were for strata-based multi-family units.
Construction values for those permits dropped compared to last January as well, with permits only adding up to just under $4 million, compared to $8.5 million a year ago. The difference again were the 20 multi-family single unit permits, which accounted for $5 million of January 2015’s value.
This January did see an increased value in alterations values, for both residential and commercial categories, though.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Brendan Kergin at bkergin@infonews.ca or call 250-819-6089. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © iNFOnews, 2016