$45M in building permits approved in Vernon’s third quarter

Nov 8, 2023 | 12:35 PM

The City of Vernon continued to see large numbers of building permits issued over the summer.

A third quarter (Q3) development and real estate update was provided to Vernon city council Monday, Nov. 6.

The update showed there were 69 residential units approved for construction between June 1 and September 30, which were part of a total of 100 building permits issued in Q3.

The permits for the residential projects included 29 single family homes, 13 multi-family dwellings and eight single family homes with suites.

The Q3 residential projects bring the year-to-date total of approved housing units for construction in Vernon to 320.

Event Cancelled

Pentastic Hot Jazz & Music Festival cancelled after nearly 30 years

1h ago

Flood Hazards

Requests for proposals open for Water Reclamation bridge project

1h ago

Fire spreads to house

Vernon home "significantly damaged" by grass fire

Apr 02, 2026

The report noted that the total number of building permits issued in Q3 was virtually unchanged from the 101 issued in Q2.

John Perrott, Vernon’s manager of economic development and tourism, told council the building permit value for Q3 was around $45 million, bringing the year-to-date total to $163 million, which was down slightly from the $165 million during the same period of 2022.

He noted the processing timelines were all very good, with building permits being processed on average within four weeks, development permits processed within three months, and development variance permits/rezoning applications taking about six months to process.

Perrott said real estate transactions did “take a little bit of a dip” in Q3, mainly due to the impacts of interest rate increases, but added that followed similar trends from past years where sales start strong in Q3 but decline towards the end of the three month period.

The Fair Market Value average sales price was reported at $715,813 in Q3, up seven per cent from Q2.

Mayor Victor Cumming pointed out during the meeting that the third quarter of past years usually saw more multi-family projects, but this year those were about equal with the single family homes. He said it seemed there was a shift in the market where escalating prices were leading to more participation in the high end of the market, and less willingness to participate in the low end or multi-family part of the market.

Speaking with Vernon Matters following the meeting, Cumming stated the figures showed Vernon was still on track with the record setting 2022 building permit figures.

“It shows we’re right on track with last year. We built a few more single family dwellings than we did last year and it’s about even with our multi-family, where last year it was heavier to multi-family,” Cumming said.

He said though there were less units approved for construction in Q3, Vernon had a “really big first quarter” and that the city was in good shape in terms of building more housing.

“The thing that I’m really keen on is some of these multi-family projects that have already been approved, have gone through the complete application process, that the developers see an appropriate time to actually start construction,” Cumming told Vernon Matters.

“So I encourage them to to do that: take a building permit, get it underway.”

Council received the Q3 development update for information.

by Liam Verster

View Comments