December Building Permits in Toronto

February 5, 2010

Buildings by Jim Crocker

A report by Statistics Canada from yesterday claims that the number and value of building permits in Toronto area has increased by 15 percent from November to December. Overall, the permits in December were worth $1.2 billion and the majority of them were for nonresidential and institutional buildings.

“The increase in permits in December was entirely due to the non-residential sector” according to Statistics Canada. If we compare December of 2008 and 2009, building permits were 7.8 percent higher in 2009. Comparing whole 2008 and 2009, though, it needs to be said that the building permits in Toronto area were 16.5 percent lower this past year.

In the whole country, the permits in December 2009 were worth $6.2 billion. That means an increase of 2.4 percent from November. The most significant increase was actually here in Toronto and in Calgary. The share of Toronto area is almost 20 percent, actually, which indeed is a lot. Isn’t that a good result?