Commercial building construction in British Columbia rose 6.0% to $819 million in the 2012's third quarter, according to a Statistics Canada report issued today.
B.C.'s was the strongest percentage gain in the country, with an overall nationwide increase of 1.0% to $7.3 billion.
The growth in the province was largely driven by the construction of office buildings and wholesale and retail outlets.
Alberta saw the largest decrease in commercial construction in the third quarter, with a 2.5% decline. This is the first decline in more than two years of consecutive increases in that province. However, Alberta's overall commercial construction investment remains considerably higher than B.C.'s at $1.7 billion.
Other provinces seeing strong gains in commercial real estate development included:
- Manitoba (5.6%);
- Saskatchewan (4.9%); and
- Newfoundland and Labrador (4.0%).
A survey of overall investment in all non-residential building construction – including commercial, industrial and institutional – saw the biggest gains in Vancouver, Montreal and Calgary. The biggest decreases in all non-residential building construction were seen in Edmonton and Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo.
