While rents in many B.C. cities are soaring higher every month and house prices continue to rise, the number of homes being built is declining, with home builders saying that interest rates and prohibitive land and construction costs continue to hobble them.

Housing starts and new-home registrations are down this year, and the number of building permits in some high-growth cities has fallen noticeably from last year.

Vancouver, which issued about 2,600 building permits from January to May last year, issued just 2,100 in the same period this year. In Surrey, about 220 fewer permits were issued, a year-over-year drop of 10 per cent.

In contrast, Burnaby and Coquitlam have seen increases or no decline. Both are suburbs that were primarily single-family bedroom communities until the past decade, when their local councils began encouraging density in certain areas and approving some of the region’s tallest towers.

On the whole, however, B.C. and national statistics show that the later stages of home building – permits, completions, new-home registrations – are down in many places, even though municipalities may have approved a number of new homes in the past couple of years.

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