Weak pre-sale activity continues to weigh on new residential construction in the province, while purpose-built rental projects are helping support construction activity.

The total value of building permits in June in BC declined by 9.5% compared with last month, while the national value increased by 18.5%, according to Statistics Canada’s Aug. 12 release.

The multi-unit component led the national increase in residential building permits, rising $284.7 million to $5.3 billion, while the single-family component increased $196 million to $2.8 billion.

In BC, however, the value of single-family building permits fell $30.8 million in June, tempering the national gain.

In the second quarter of 2026, the total value of building permits in Canada increased $1.4 billion to $40.4 billion, while BC recorded a $386.2-million decline from the previous quarter.

“In BC we were expecting to see things slow, and they are slowing because there’s just not as many condos as we’ve built,” said Brendon Ogmundson, chief economist at the British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA).

“It’s just that it’s not slowing as much as we thought.”

Developers finance condo construction through pre-sales, and “really slow” pre-sale activity in BC over the past two years has led to weak market conditions for new condo construction, according to Ogmundson.

But Ogmundson said monthly building-permits value could be very volatile as one new building permit of an office building, for example, could change the stats significantly, and it’s more accurate to look at annual stats.

He estimates about 35,000 apartment units are planned annually in BC, with rental units accounting for much of the planned construction.

“One of the things that is really helping levels of construction stay at a decent level is there’s a lot of purpose-built rentals still being built, because it’s the one kind of product type that’s easier to get financing for,” said Ogmundson, adding some developers have been pivoting from residential to rental projects.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) offers the Apartment Construction Loan Program, which provides low-cost financing to developers building purpose-built rental housing, with favourable interest rates and amortization periods.

Ogmundson said he foresees new building permits for BC properties continuing to slow, especially for multi-residential units, given weak pre-sales.

“Real strength is in rental; we’ll see how long that can kind of hold up the rest of the sector,” he said.

However, he said there’s a risk that BC will see a pretty significant slowdown in new-home construction over the next five years, similar to what the province experienced in the 2010-15 period.

“If that’s the case, there’s a real risk that we run into a supply shortage. At the end of the decade, then we start to see the price start to accelerate,” said Ogmundson.

BC Building Permits Fall 9.5% in June Despite National Growth by Daisy Xiong | BIV