New homes started in the City

The figure in the headline changed 59.9% between 2016 to 2020 and 2025 (five-year totals, 2016 to 2020 and 2021 to 2025), at or above the 5% threshold.

More homes started means more housing on the way, as for the Greater Victoria figure. 5,807 homes started in the City in 2021 to 2025 against 3,632 in 2016 to 2020 (sums of BC Stats’ yearly figures). The single year 2025: 1,473, against 439 in 2024. Metropolitan area, 2021 to 2025: 23,632.

Outcome measures read Better, Worse or About the same; published government targets read Ahead of, On or Behind target; value-judgement measures read Rising, Falling or Steady in a neutral colour. A change smaller than the agency's own margin of error, or otherwise smaller than 5% of the earlier value, is About the same (or Steady). No change is calculated across a marked break in a series. The rule.

Why it matters. It shows how much new housing is starting inside the City, where City Hall decides zoning and permits.

• Housing starts count homes where construction began in the year (CMHC’s Starts and Completions Survey), compiled by municipality by BC Stats.
• Starts in the City move a lot from year to year, because one large apartment building can add hundreds of homes at once. So the headline adds up five years and compares them with the five years before.
• The by-municipality table is BC Stats’ own rows for the Victoria metropolitan area.
• BC Stats’ note in the file: Adapted from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, BC Historical Housing Starts. This does not constitute an endorsement by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation of this product or of the accuracy or quality of the information that it contains.

Housing starts by municipality, Victoria metropolitan area, 2021 to 2025

Row names as BC Stats publishes them (CY city, DM district, T town, RDA electoral area). A dash in the file means not available for that area and year.

Area: City of Victoria

The City of Victoria municipality only, all neighbourhoods.

Included

• All City of Victoria neighbourhoods, including Downtown, James Bay, Fairfield, Fernwood, Oaklands, Hillside/Quadra, North Park, Burnside, Victoria West, Rockland, Jubilee and Gonzales

Not included

• Saanich, Oak Bay, Esquimalt, Langford and every other municipality in the region

Official definition

• City of Victoria: Neighbourhood Boundaries (open data map)

How the agency describes it: City of Victoria (BC Stats row “VICTORIA CY”).

This number is published by the agency as shown; it is not calculated here. The script reads it from the agency’s own file.

Published under an open licence: anyone may reuse it with credit. About licences.

Published by

BC Stats, Housing Starts, Urban Areas and Communities (CMHC data)

Licence

CMHC Licence Agreement for the Use of Data; also listed as Open Government Licence - British Columbia

Updated by agency

Yearly (BC Stats); latest release Apr 20, 2026

Retrieved

Nov 11, 2026, 11:20 PM B.C. time

BC Stats lists the file under the Open Government Licence - British Columbia; the file itself carries CMHC’s licence for its data.

Adapted from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, BC Historical Housing Starts. This does not constitute an endorsement by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation of this product or of the accuracy or quality of the information that it contains. Prepared by BC Stats.