While there has been some housing start activity in Estevan over the course of the year, Estevan’s housing market has yet to recover to where it was before the plunge in the price of oil. Estevan saw no new housing starts in the city for the month of June.
“We peaked a few years ago, and had quite a bit of housing development up until that point,” said Rob Denys, land development manager with the City of Estevan. “The oil sector slowdown has affected everything. It’s one of the primary engines of the local economy, so everything fluctuates to where that’s going.”
In June 2016, there were no single-family dwellings under construction. This was a lack of activity on par with the number of housing starts in June 2015. The number of housing starts from the beginning of the year to June in 2016 was four, while there were three, from the beginning of the year to June in 2015.
For June 2016, the number of permits approved for single-family homes increased to four, from three, in June 2015.
The number of permits approved for multi-family dwellings in June 2016 decreased, to zero from one permit approved in June 2015. The number of housing starts for multi-family dwellings have also decreased, from four to zero. From the beginning of 2015 to June 2015, there were 12 units under construction, while in 2016, from the beginning of the year to June, there have been none.
The construction of secondary residential suites remains stagnant since last year. There have been no secondary suite permits approved this year, nor have there been any constructed.
From the beginning of 2015 to June, there was one permit approved for a secondary suite. and one secondary suite under construction.
Denys said he doesn’t expect to see a lot of housing starts for the remainder of the year, but noted that it can be difficult to predict economic conditions, which ultimately dictate what will happen in the housing market, particularly in a resource-heavy economy like that of Estevan.
“There will be some housing starts, but I don’t think we’re going to see a big increase,” said Denys. “Housing has to be absorbed into the market, so there won’t be any big spikes for the remainder of the year.”
Although Estevan’s housing market has been inactive in June 2016, Estevan measures up fairly well to other cities in Saskatchewan, with populations from 10,000 to 49,999.
The total number of housing starts in the second quarter of 2016 for Estevan increased to 24, from 11 in the second quarter of the previous year. In the second quarter of 2016, Estevan had a greater total number of housing starts than Lloydminster, Moose Jaw, North Battleford, Swift Current, and Weyburn.
In the second quarter of 2016, the number of single-family dwelling housing starts increased to eight, from seven, in 2015. The number of housing starts for multi-family dwellings in the same period increased from four to 16.
