NEWS PHOTO COLLIN GALLANT
construction crane works on a new seniors assisted living facility in south Medicine Hat on a site located behind the community of Chartwell Gardens. Building permits issued by the city of Medicine Hat were up substantially in 2021 compared to the year before, according to new figures.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
Solid and improving building permit figures in 2021 are being taken as a positive signal for the local economy by officials at the city’s planning department and construction sector.
Following unprecedented pressure on building projects and developers in 2020, activity in 2021 was much better than during the early stages of the pandemic, and in some categories, topped prepandemic levels.
“It’s actually a really good year overall,” said Amanda Brinda, director of planning and building services for the City of Medicine Hat.
“We’re at a five-year high, with development (moving) better than average. It’s not a record year by any measure, but it’s a good year and really good after 2020.”
Her office is preparing a more in-depth overview to present to the planning commission this winter, but initial figures show the final value of building permits by Dec. 31 was $107.6 million.
That was led by higher spending across most residential categories, a glut of institutional projects, along with some commercial and industrial additions.
The 12-month total zooms past 2020 numbers ($47.8 million) and is about 18 per cent higher than the final figure of 2019 ($90.6 million).
“It was a much busier year than most everyone was expecting in 2020,” said Jackie Taylor, the new president of BILD Medicine Hat, formerly known as the Canadian Homebuilders Association.
“A lot of people used money that maybe would have been used on vacation for renovations. Some of the bigger (residential) projects were related to suddenly having to work at home, having kids indoors needing space, the sort of lifestyle needs, they went ahead, too.”
The construction value of new homes in Medicine Hat last year, $20.3 million, or $380,000 on average, was equal to the previous two years combined.
Permits were issued in 2020 for 53 new single-family homes, up from 37 in 2020 and a recent low point of 20 in 2019.
Duplex permits were up 150 per cent to 25 structures costing an estimated $8.4 million, and smaller multifamily projects showed improvement while apartment projects held steady.
In terms of residential property improvements, new garages numbered 93, up 20 on the year, while 480 permits for substantial home renovations were valued 15 per cent higher than the 2020 total.
Brinda believes figures would have been higher except for a rise in cost of building materials in the spring when projects were being planned for the summer.
That backed off later in the summer, which could extend projects into the coming year.
“It points to more people feeling confident to start on renovations,” she said, also noting business licence applications were also up. “All the stats show a promising trend of an economic recovery.”
Institutional spending, including a major new assisted living facility in south Medicine Hat, and city and other government projects totalled $48.5 million.
New commercial builds were nearly dormant for the year, but renovations rose to $11.6 million, up $4 million from 2020 on the same number of projects.
Industrial upgrades also booked $4.3 million.
