Finance Blog number 1

The value of Metro Vancouver building permits dropped by a third in November, driven mostly by a big drop in filings for multi-family housing projects, Statistics Canada reported Thursday.

Builders were issued permits for $446 million worth of work in Metro Vancouver, compared with $669 million the month before.

In its report, Statistics Canada attributed the decline to a decrease in multi-family permit applications, which were down across the province almost 50 per cent from the previous month. November, however, was also a record month for new-home starts in Metro Vancouver, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.

Builders started work on 2,704 new units during the month on permits already issued.

Statistics Canada also reported that the value of new Metro Vancouver homes also crept up 0.2 per cent in November from October on its new-housing-price index, thanks largely to strong market conditions in the Lower Mainland payday advance.

To the end of November, Vancouver’s new-housing-price index had increased 6.4 per cent.

To the end of November, Metro Vancouver builders had taken out $6.45 billion worth of building permits, a 4.7 per cent increase from the first 11 months of 2006.

Provincewide builders took out a total of $901 million worth of building permits in November, a 20 per cent decline from October, with a 6.5 per cent increase in non-residential permits to $290.5 million, offsetting some of the residential decline.

To the end of November, municipalities had issued $11.5 billion worth of building permits, a 7.1-per-cent increase from the first 11 months of 2006.