There was a bit of a slow down in building activity in Kamloops for the month of May, the first month in 2020 where COVID-19 may have played a role in the statistics.

There was still 113 permits issued last month worth almost $25 million. That compares to 192 permits worth more than $33 million in May, 2019.

The city’s Building and Engineering Development Manager Jason Dixon was on The Jeff Andreas Show. He says there remains a trend of more people seemingly doing work on their own homes. “Think we’re seeing a shift. People are at home. Province is recommending people stay close to home. We’re not going on vacations. I think people are taking this opportunity to make improvements to their home and that’s being reflected in the permits.”

“Alterations, we’ve had 63 permits for alterations versus 42 last year and over double the construction value. Same thing with swimming pools, seems to be a hot commodity these days. Fifteen swimming pool permits so far this year versus nine last year and again over double the construction value.”

Dixon says it’s a good year so far when looking at home construction. He says 481 dwelling units have been created this year versus 244 last year and it is mostly high density multi-family dwellings. There were tow permits issued for multi-family homes with three or more units. The pair have a total construction value of $17.5 million.

Dixon does expect the May trends to continue into June. “Still getting lots of applications, just slightly different applications than we typically get, the swimming pools, the additions, alterations, that kind of stuff. I think we’ll still continue to see a lot of applications for those type of projects. Probably still be a little slower on the new construction projects for a bit until things really settle down.”