Greater Victoria's building permit values slid in December as the economic slowdown continued to put the brakes on many construction projects.
Permits for all types of construction in the capital region slumped by 40.2 per cent to $29.4 million in December from November, Statistics ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ said yesterday.
Provincially, the picture was similar. ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ permit values dropped by 40.9 per cent in the last month of 2008 to $358.1 million from the previous month, the federal agency said.
For the country as a whole, permit values decreased by 3.9 per cent to $4.6 billion, down for the third month in a row. Both residential and non-residential sectors saw overall declines.
Residential permits were down 3.2 per cent to $2.6 billion in December, marking the ninth monthly drop in 2008, Statistics ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ said.
"The Canadian housing market is clearly on a corrective path, and with permit issuance continuing to soften, we expected residential building activity to weaken even further as waning housing demand and tighter lending conditions weigh on construction activity," said Millan Mulraine, economics strategist at TD Securities.
Increases in multi-family permits in Ontario were not enough to offset declines in single-family permits in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, the federal agency said.
The value of non-residential permits fell 4.9 per cent to $2 billion, the third straight monthly decline, Statistics ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ said. The drop was mainly in institutional permits in Alberta and commercial permits in British Columbia, where there was a lower demand for recreation and warehouse building permits.
Ontario reported increases in total permit values in December, mainly due to gains in multiple-family permits and in all three components of the non-residential sector, Statistics ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ said.
Quebec also reported an increase, the result of higher values in non-residential components and single-family permits.
By city, the largest declines were in Calgary, Vancouver and Ottawa, as both residential and non-residential permits fell, the agency said.
Toronto, meanwhile, posted an increase in permits in December as values for multiple-family permits tripled.
