{"id":27291,"date":"2026-02-25T11:11:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T19:11:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/?p=27291"},"modified":"2026-02-20T07:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T15:13:11","slug":"a-majority-of-residential-homebuilding-is-expected-to-decline-in-2026-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2026\/02\/a-majority-of-residential-homebuilding-is-expected-to-decline-in-2026-2027\/","title":{"rendered":"A Majority of Residential Homebuilding is Expected to Decline in 2026 &#038; 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Investment in building construction increased in BC in December, but one economist says the monthly data is \u201clumpy\u201d and masks severe weakness in the province\u2019s residential sector.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Investment in building construction in BC totalled $3.58 billion in December, a 20.4% increase compared to December 2024, according to data released Feb. 18 by Statistics Canada (StatCan).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A majority of this was residential building construction, which totalled $2.5 billion in December, a 26.8% increase compared to the same month a year earlier.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Within the residential category, investment in detached homes totalled $897.3 million, an increase of 41.4%. Apartments meanwhile accounted for $1.39 billion, a 21.3% increase.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">These numbers may look good, but they hide the significant downturn in the province\u2019s real estate sector, said Jock Finlayson, chief economist with the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cIt\u2019s really a complete, almost apocalyptic scenario for new residential development, which is totally inconsistent with this number for December,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A few large multi-family projects can easily inflate the data for a given month, he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">On the contrary, residential homebuilding is expected to decline in 2026 and 2027, he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Development projects are being shelved and cancelled in the Lower Mainland, and there are thousands of unsold condos sitting empty, he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Financing is another calamity. Presale demand for new condos \u201chas basically evaporated\u201d and the presale model has broken down, Finlayson said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe ability to have these presale units was an integral part of the business model for multi-family development, and that\u2019s totally collapsed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Many developers are struggling financially, layoffs are occurring and the industry is contracting, he noted.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Strong population growth in recent years has now given way to absolute declines, curbing residential demand, he added.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Finlayson also cited a cost-of-delivery crisis, whereby the cost of delivering new product exceeds what buyers can afford to pay for it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Things look a bit different on the non-residential side.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">StatCan said non-residential construction was $1.08 billion in BC in December 2025, a 7.8% increase compared to December 2024.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This consisted of industrial (down 33.2% to $82.2 million), commercial (up 3.6% to $568.5 million) and institutional and governmental (up 29.9% to $428.7 million).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">ICBA\u2019s Finlayson said the institutional and government component is particularly strong due to high capital spending and new public projects being undertaken.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThere\u2019s more underlying strength there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cResidential is where things are really going south.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biv.com\/news\/real-estate\/bc-residential-sector-reeling-despite-strong-december-data-economist-11901674\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ICBA Economist : BC Residential Sector Reeling Despite Strong December Data<\/a> by Jami Makan | BIV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Investment in building construction increased in BC in December, but one economist says the monthly data is \u201clumpy\u201d and masks severe weakness in the province\u2019s residential sector. Investment in building &hellip; [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2026\/02\/a-majority-of-residential-homebuilding-is-expected-to-decline-in-2026-2027\/\">read more<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pre-sale-projects","category-real-estate"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A Majority of Residential Homebuilding is Expected to Decline in 2026 &amp; 2027 &#8226; Rory C Real Estate | Oakwyn Realty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2026\/02\/a-majority-of-residential-homebuilding-is-expected-to-decline-in-2026-2027\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"A Majority of Residential Homebuilding is Expected to Decline in 2026 &amp; 2027 &#8226; Rory C Real Estate | Oakwyn Realty\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Investment in building construction increased in BC in December, but one economist says the monthly data is \u201clumpy\u201d and masks severe weakness in the province\u2019s residential sector. 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