Billion-dollar building boom for Windsor’s non-residential sector
The Gordie Howe International Bridge is shown on Monday, January 15, 2024. PHOTO BY DAN JANISSE /Windsor Star
“You’d have to go back to when we were building the casino to find a comparison (in activity).”
But all that mega-project activity is being offset by a deep dip in the value of residential building permits for the same period — $614.1 million compared to $1.12 billion for November 2023 versus November 2022.
According to Statistics Canada data, non-residential permits for the month of November 2023 were $40 million while the total value of residential permits was $35.6 million.
The combined value for all local building permits for the 12-month period ending in November is down 30.6 per cent.
“All of that drop is accounted for by the residential sector,” Lyons said. “There’s not a lot of homes being built because of the interest rates.”
“We’re not going to start speculatively building for the spring like has been done in the past,” Klundert said.
“This year we have so much inventory available still, we’re not going to add to it.”
In the latest CMHC housing stats for November 2023, the Windsor area saw 86 new starts comprised of 23 single-family homes, 12 semi-detached, 15 row house units and 36 apartments. That’s 36 fewer starts than in October.
For the first 11 months of 2023, new starts are down 429 units compared to the same period in 2022.
The single-family homes that have been constructed won’t qualify as affordable housing either. The average price of the newly-built homes that have been sold in the past three months is nearly $1.1 million.
“Everyone is just waiting for the levee to break and then there’s going to be a rush. There’s a pent-up demand that is continuing to build and the area’s population is continuing to grow.”
Klundert said builders are optimistic that levee will break in 2024 if interest rates remain stable or begin to dip, simply because of the building pressure.
“I expect there’ll be a high demand again for single-family homes as the market begins to move,” Klundert said. “The market has a land inventory for single-family homes.
“You’ll also see a mix with more high-density projects that are in the planning stages now.”
“The region is in good shape,” Lyons said.
“As these new jobs arrive soon, we’ll be seeing construction in residential condo/apartments take off too with people moving here.
“I don’t think you’ll see so much of the high-end stuff, but more for mid-price range and first-time buyers.”
