{
  "id": "new-homes-approved",
  "category": "Housing and homelessness",
  "title": "New homes approved by building permit, City of Victoria",
  "geography": "City of Victoria (municipality)",
  "scope": "city",
  "levels": [
    "Municipal (permits issued by the City)",
    "Private builders"
  ],
  "plain_question": "How many new homes did the city approve for construction this year?",
  "value": 1646,
  "display_value": "1,646",
  "unit": "homes (residential units in building permits issued)",
  "period": "Calendar year 2025",
  "period_start": "2025-01-01",
  "period_end": "2025-12-31",
  "comparison": {
    "previous_period": "Calendar year 2024",
    "previous_value": 936,
    "change_percent": 75.9
  },
  "trend": "mixed",
  "trend_basis": "1,646 in 2025 compared with 936 in 2024 (+75.9%). So far in 2026 (January to Aug): 218 compared with 740 in the same months of 2025 (-70.5%).",
  "direction_good": "up",
  "right_direction": "A higher number means more new homes were approved for construction.",
  "caveats": [
    "Permits approve homes; they do not mean the homes have been built or occupied.",
    "The number is lumpy. A few large buildings can move a whole year, so a single year is a weak signal. Yearly totals since 2018: 2018: 1,283, 2019: 602, 2020: 581, 2021: 1,205, 2022: 1,120, 2023: 810, 2024: 936, 2025: 1,646.",
    "The most recent year to date (2026) is shown in the trend note. When the full year and the year to date point different ways, the trend is marked 'mixed'.",
    "Data come from Statistics Canada's Building Permits survey as published by BC Stats. Municipal reporting is not always complete, and 2018 onward is not directly comparable to earlier years."
  ],
  "series": [
    {
      "period": "2018",
      "value": 1283
    },
    {
      "period": "2019",
      "value": 602
    },
    {
      "period": "2020",
      "value": 581
    },
    {
      "period": "2021",
      "value": 1205
    },
    {
      "period": "2022",
      "value": 1120
    },
    {
      "period": "2023",
      "value": 810
    },
    {
      "period": "2024",
      "value": 936
    },
    {
      "period": "2025",
      "value": 1646
    }
  ],
  "source": {
    "name": "BC Stats, Government of British Columbia (adapted from Statistics Canada, Building Permits survey)",
    "url": "https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/data/statistics/economy/housing-building-permits",
    "dataset_url": "https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/45a00be0-d572-4e42-be18-1bbaaf6c85ee",
    "download_url": "https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/45a00be0-d572-4e42-be18-1bbaaf6c85ee/resource/dbc42bcc-75b3-4d48-a8b9-aefdd2608e63/download/resunitstotal.csv"
  },
  "licence": {
    "name": "Open Government Licence - British Columbia",
    "url": "https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content?id=A519A56BC2BF44E4A008B33FCF527F61"
  },
  "refresh_frequency": "Monthly",
  "data_published": "2026-10-22",
  "retrieved_at": "2026-11-11T06:52:23Z",
  "attribution": "Adapted from Statistics Canada, Building Permits. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product."
}