Photo: Contributed

With the sunshine comes a very busy summer real estate season for Kelowna, with housing starts up once again over last month.

Housing starts in the Kelowna Census Metropolitan Area were trending at 1,367 units in July, up from 1,199 units in June, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

The trend is a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates of housing starts.

“Housing starts trended upwards in July with growth concentrated around the multiple-family segment of the market,” says Taylor Pardy, CMHC senior market analyst.

“While construction of single-detached units declined, multiple-family starts have increased compared with the same period in 2014. The majority of multiple-family starts have been condominiums, however, some new rental apartments have also started construction.”

According to the CMHC, there were 179 new units in Kelowna in July 2015, compared with 110 in July 2014.

As for the Kamloops area, housing starts for July remained relatively unchanged from year-earlier figures, with 32 units getting underway last month compared to 31 units a year ago.

Vernon saw an increase in starts in July as well, with 23 units compared to 18 a year earlier.

In Prince George, both single-detached and multiple-family starts gained in July for a total of 18 new foundations poured compared to 11 in the same month of 2014.