Commercial real estate construction in Metro Vancouver rose 2.3 per cent in the first quarter, compared to the previous quarter, to $586 million. The result was record-breaking spending in the non-residential building permits, according to Statistics Canada.
"We are pleased to see gains for the fifth consecutive quarter for non-residential investment building construction," says Jan Robinson, interim president of the Vancouver Regional Construction Association. "Public and commercial investment in particular have made this the strongest quarter ever in Metro Vancouver, breaking the previous record set in the first quarter of 2009."
Metro Vancouver saw a 4 per cent rise in total non-residential building construction investment in the first quarter of 2013 to $885 million seasonally adjusted, from $851.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2012. Institutional-government permits rose 9.5 per cent to $237.5 million, while industrial building construction was unchanged from the fourth quarter of 2012 at $61.1 million, StatsCanada reports.
