Two rental buildings consisting of more than 200 units were given development permits by Kamloops council on Tuesday (Aug. 31).

An 11-storey, mixed-use development with 115 rental units and a ground-floor commercial space is expected to be built on the parking lots next to the Kamloops Curling Club downtown (641, 651, 657 and 669 Lansdowne St.), while a 104-unit building will be set up on the grounds of the Coast Kamloops Hotel and Conference Centre at 1250 Rogers Way.

Mayor Ken Christian hopes ground will be broken in fall 2021 and be completed in 2022 or 2023. He says council is aware of housing affordability missing the middle class, and the focus is to approve those types of higher-density, multi-family residential buildings.

“The housing continuum has a number of different levels of housing,” Christian says. “Affordable generally means something that’s going to be less than 30 per cent of your income. Affordable to one person is going to be different to another. What we have seen in Kamloops in the last decade is the fact that most buildings were strata and owner-occupied buildings. Now we’re seeing the market shift and we’re seeing more rental opportunities in Kamloops and a lot of these smaller units will be quite affordable.”

The rental market wheels have turned in Kamloops over the summer. Kelson Group has begun the process of selling and relocating houses ahead of the City Gardens project and council approved an affordable housing building on Tranquille.

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