It appears that Saugeen Shores is continuing along the path of strong development and building for 2023, having seen a strong increase in construction values over the past five years.
In a recent delegation by Saugeen Shores at the ROMA conference, it was highlighted that the municipality is one of the fastest growing communities in Ontario. In fact, the “Municipality grew at 16% since the last census; this is more than twice as fast as the County of Bruce (7.7%) and almost three times as quickly as the province (5.8%). This is on top of our 11.2% growth rate from 2006 to 2011, and an 8.3% growth rate from 2011 to 2016.”
Although construction numbers dropped in 2020 due to COVID-19 shutdowns, in 2021 the numbers rebounded to record highs and, 2022 saw the second highest year on record.
In a report to Council on February 12th (2023), the Town Building Department said that, although last year’s numbers dipped, the dollar value remained well above the five-year average of almost $117M to almost $130M.
When it comes to residential, building permits for improvements to properties for items such as garages, carports and sheds were up from over $1M in 2021 to almost $2M in 2022. In addition, residential renovations and additions climbed to over $5million in 2022 from $3,882,800 in 2021 and commercial additions and renovations more than tripled from $3M in 2021 to $9,749,126 in 2022.
It also appears that more building is occurring when it comes to additional residential units (ARU) or secondary suites. In 2021, there were five houses with secondary suites while in 2022 there were 18 suites applied for with more anticipated in 2023.
The five-year average for actual building permits is 393 and, in 2022, the number held strong at 390 with several developments underway, including Southampton Landing housing project, the Holiday Inn expansion, the Goderich St. commercial centre, Westlinks and Summerside residential developments among others.
The Building Department anticipates that 2023 will also be a strong year for commercial projects with developments such as the new LCBO adjacent to WalMart moving forward.
To read the Town’s monthly and yearly building stats, click HERE.