The final number are in for a second-straight record year of construction in Kamloops, and one number indicates a major change in the community.

Building and engineering development manager Jason Dixon says the city issued building permits for $85 million dollars worth of apartment-style housing last year.

He says that’s more than double from 2017, and attributes that to changing demands for space and affordability.

“I think we’re just seeing a transition in our community,” Dixon says. “We relied so heavily on single-family-type development for so long. I just think we’re seeing that shift or starting to shift to more housing types for people.”

While a new yearly record was already set in November, the end-of-year building permit values reached more than $285 million in the Tournament Capital. That total is more than 25 per cent higher than the previous record in 2017, of $227 million.

The construction value for December was $22.4 million, driven largely by $19.6 million in commercial building permits.

For the year, Dixon adds that construction values were also way up for commercial, institutional and industrial developments.

“On the institutional side, there’s a new nursing building coming at TRU, that’s $27-and-a-half million dollars in that project alone.”

In total, the city issued 438 residential construction permits for 837 new units last year, valued collectively at $163.8 million dollars. For commercial construction, meanwhile, the city issued 120 permits worth $109.2 million.

While the construction value in 2018 was marginally higher than 2017, the city actually issued 307 fewer building permits in 2018 than the year earlier, at 1,527.