March was a healthy month for building permits in Kamloops

Photo: Brendan Kergin

Builders building a building.

For the third year in a row, the City of Kamloops recorded between $16 and $17 million in new building permits value.

So far 2020 has been hot in the construction market, and that continued in March with $16.9 million in permits issued. That's ahead of both March 2019 and 2018, though not by much.

That also keeps 2020 ahead of last year's record-breaking pace, though the impacts of COVID-19 are yet to be seen on the statistics released by the City of Kamloops.

The strong month is due mostly to the value in residential construction, with $15.8 million in permits issued last month. That category was helped along by a multi-family project worth over $6.2 million.

With $46.7 million in permits issued so far this year, 2020 has been outpacing both 2019 ($32.3 million at this point) and 2018 ($38.5 million at this point). However, the pandemic has caused some projects to be shut down or delayed; its impact is yet to be known.