While St. Albert was able to weather the downturn of the economy in 2017 and years prior, in 2018 that changed. St. Albert saw a sharp decrease in the total building permit values year-over-year (the value of building permits provides a glimpse into the performance of the building construction sectors). Total building permits in 2018 came in at $152 million as compared to $287 million in 2017, $266 million in 2016 and $220 million in 2015. That equates to a decrease of 47%. While this may seem like negative news, there are positives to it. Below is a breakdown of building permit values and some perspective behind what these numbers actually mean.

Residential:

The residential building permits totals for 2018 came in at $111 million compared to $196 million in 2017. While the value went down the number of building permits increased from 675 in 2017 to 726 in 2018. The majority of the increase was seen in semi-detached and townhouse/condo development with semi-detached increasing from 45 permits in 2017 to 64 in 2018 and townhouses increasing from 44 in 2017 to 77 in 2018. Single family homes remained flat year-over-year with 144 permits in 2017 and 145 in 2018. Even though the number of single family permits remained consistent, the value of the permits actually decreased by 10% goin g from $73 million in 2017 to $67 million in 2018. This decrease in the value of new single-family homes and increase in semi-detached and townhouse condos reflects the changing housing market in St. Albert, which is a positive change. Lower cost housing is needed to attract and retain the young adult demographic, which wasn't highly available in our city.

Apartment buildings also help to attract a younger demographic and even though we didn't see any new building permits in 2018, in 2017 there were four building permits with a total value of $90 million. Much of the construction for the buildings was completed in 2018 which means that even though the permits went in the year prior, the money from them was injected into the economy in 2018.

Also positive in 2018 was the average resale value of single-family homes which increased from $469,051 in 2017 to $478,557 in 2018. The total number of sales was up from 761 in 2017 to 778 in 2018 and the total sales volume for resales in St. Albert was up from $436 million in 2017 to $451 million in 2018.

Commercial:

In 2018, 79 commercial projects were started with the vast majority of them renovations to existing structures. Notable developments include the Sturgeon Medical Centre, a new 40,000 square foot medical office space building neighbouring the Sturgeon Community Hospital, the St. Albert Dodge Dealership and the City Annex North-Lift Station.

Industrial:

Industrial building permits was the one category where we saw an increase in building permits this year, rising from $7 million in 2017 to $12 million in 2018. Though the number of new development permits only increased from one in 2017 to two in 2018, the value rose from just under $1 million to $10.5 million. The two new developments this year were a new storage facility on Rowland Crescent and a new recycling facility, in South Riel.