Nearly 1,000 building permits issued by City of Kamloops in 2024, a value of $350 million

The City of Kamloops issued nearly 1,000 building permits in 2024, with the construction value totalling about $350 million — the third-highest annual sum the municipality has recorded.

According to the city’s building permit data, the city issued 996 total building permits last year, including residential and commercial projects — down slightly from the 1,055 permits tallied in 2023.

However, the total construction value skyrocketed to about $350 million, well above the $225 million recorded in 2023.

“That’s a big jump,” said Jason Dixon, building and engineering development manager for the City of Kamloops.

“We had set a record of $415.4 million in 2022. Our second highest was $395.1 million in 2020, and then 2024 would then be our third highest that we've seen.”

Dixon said this increasing annual value is a “great thing to see.”

He noted the construction industry is a big employer in Kamloops, when factoring in builders, suppliers, subcontractors and other support businesses.

“When you see this type of investment, that’s a lot of economic activity for the city. So obviously that’s a good news story,” Dixon said.

In 2024, the city issued 278 building permits for residential projects, the same number as in 2023. The total construction value for the residential builds was estimated to be $215.1 million — a jump from the $146.1 million recorded in 2023.

The city issued 141 building permits for commercial projects, down slightly from 147 issued in 2023. However, the construction value totalled $119.8 million last year, up from $68.6 million in 2023.

Dixon largely attributed the increasing construction values to bigger development projects in Kamloops, but noted factors like inflation and rising building costs also play a part.

The city also issued building permits for a total of 702 residential units in 2024, blowing past its tally of 411 units in 2023. Last year’s total number of permitted units also surpassed the the city’s 10-year average of 657 units per year.

Multi-family units on the rise

The number of permits issued for single family units decreased slightly last year, from 57 units in 2023 to 50 in 2024. However, the number of permits issued for duplexes, secondary suites and multi-family units shot up.

The city issued building permits for 575 multi-family units last year, up from 310 in 2023.

Permits were given out for 51 secondary suites and 17 duplexes in 2024, up from last year’s totals of 28 and five respectively.

"Having done this for a fair bit of time, the one thing I note in the community is there's a real shift away in the last number of years from single family homes,” Dixon said.

He said prior to the mid 2010s, single family homes were “the big thing” in Kamloops, with few purpose-built apartment buildings being constructed. That has shifted significantly.

“It just shows a changing market,” Dixon said. “A lot of it comes back to housing affordability. You know, it’s hard. People can't afford single family homes anymore. So we see see other housing types being provided.”

He said the city is seeing more building permits applications for secondary suites, but didn’t think this trend can yet be attributed to the province’s recent housing legislation, which in part aimed to spur infill development in cities across B.C.

Dixon noted the city’s zoning bylaw wasn’t updated to reflect these provincial changes until mid-2024.

“We all know there's lots of secondary suites in Kamloops, but historically I would suggest that just a small fraction of those ever were done with valid building permits,” Dixon said.

“Our big focus is public safety, so we're always happy to see people getting permits for those and making sure they're meeting building code requirements around exiting and safety, fire separations and stuff. So I can't speak to why the big jump — but happy to see it."

Despite the banner year for construction values in Kamloops, city council heard last month that homebuilding in the municipality is still falling short of the community's needs.

A new housing needs report estimates that 7,856 total new housing units would need to be built in Kamloops between 2021 and 2026, and 23,228 new units are required by 2041. Only about 2,000 new housing units have been built in Kamloops since 2021.