May 2024
MARKET REPORT & INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT
Presented by: Edmonton Construction Association
Building Permit Values
The total value of building permits (unadjusted for seasonality) issued in the Edmonton CMA in April increased 78% year-over-year to $510.3 million. During the four months of this year, the total value of permits issued across the region was up almost 64% from January to April 2023 to $1.98 billion.
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The total value of building permits (unadjusted for seasonality) issued in the City of Edmonton increased by 26.6% from a year prior in May to $339.7 million. After five months this year, the total value of building intentions within the City of Edmonton was up 63.6% from the same time in 2023 to $1.69 billion.
Number of Building Permits
There were 1,749 building permits issued by the City of Edmonton in the month of May, representing an increase of 21% from a year prior.
For the year-to-date, the number of permits issued has reached 7,517, up more than one-third over January to May 2023.
Housing Starts
Total starts in the Edmonton Metro Area were up 113% from a year earlier in May to 1,830 units. Of these, 577 were single-detached units.
Within Edmonton City, total starts amounted to 1,266 units, more than double the total from a year ago.
For the year-to-date, total starts across Metro have increased almost 70% from January to May 2023 to 6,973 units.
Inside the city of Edmonton, starts so far in 2024 have increased 70% to 5,082 units.
Housing Starts
Investment in New Building Construction
Investment in new building construction was up in the Edmonton Region by 44.2% year-over-year in April to $488.5 million. Residential investment was up almost 51% to $349.2 million.
For the year-to-date, total new construction investment has increased in the Edmonton area by one-third over the first four months of 2023 to $1.88 billion.
Constructions Contribution to GDP
The construction sector accounted for 8% of Alberta’s GDP in 2023, representing $26.95 billion in economic activity.
Measured in constant (2017) dollars, this level of activity was down 5.3% from 2022 when the construction sector accounted for 8.6% of the province’s GDP.
Major Projects - City of Edmonton
According to the Alberta government’s major projects report, there were 153 major projects valued >$5 million, planned or underway, in Edmonton during May. Total estimated value of these projects was $43.8 billion, down from $91.9 billion a year due to reductions in industrial and oil/gas and pipeline spending.
Total Employed in Construction
According to the Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey (LFS), there were 237,800 people working in construction (unadjusted) in Alberta during the month of May. This represented 9.4% of total employment across the province. Construction employment in Greater Edmonton stood at 85,300 persons in May, down 1.7% from a year prior.
Unemployed in Construction
The unemployment rate (unadjusted) for the construction industry in Alberta stood at 7.9% in May, down from 8.4% in April.
Statistics Canada estimated there were 20,300 unemployed construction workers in the Alberta labour force in May compared with 22,200 in April.
Building Construction Price Indexes
The Statistics Canada residential construction price index for Edmonton increased in the first quarter of 2024 by 1.3% from the last 3 months of 2023 but was largely unchanged from January to March of last year. The non-residential building price index was up 3.6% from the 1st quarter of 2023.
Edmonton’s annualized inflation rate increased in May by 2.8% year-over-year, unchanged from the rate reported in April.
The consumer price index in the Edmonton CMA in April 2023 was also up 2.8% from a year earlier.
Alberta Net Migration
Total net migration from all sources into Alberta amounted to 45,375 persons during the first quarter of this year, representing a 4.5% increase from the first three months of 2023. The province continued to benefit from strong interprovincial net migration along with high volumes of newcomers from outside of Canada – in particular non-permanent residents.