Mission 2022 housing. Mission and Abbotsford’s councils and city governments both want the same thing—more housing. But over the last year, the pace of home-building in the two communities has headed in very different directions.
For the first time in decades (and possibly ever), construction started on more new homes in Mission than its neighbour to the south. The change is sudden, dramatic, and caused both by a dramatic decline in new construction in Abbotsford and a spike in development in Mission.
Other Fraser Valley communities are also seeing building trends shift. Aside from Harrison Hot Springs, each municipality’s council has declared a need to bolster their supply of housing. But housing data analyzed by The Current shows some are doing a better job than others at meeting that goal.
Mission and Abbotsford
With more than 40,000 residents, Mission is not a particularly small town. But from its very-personal political fights to its charming main street, it often has a small-town feel.
That sense is only emphasized by its closer relationship to Abbotsford, its much-larger cross-river sibling. The pair share bus, water, and waste systems. Many Mission residents work (or play) in Abbotsford. A good number of Abbotsford residents head in the opposite direction.
Over the last two decades, Abbotsford has consistently grown faster than Mission, further cementing the big brother-little brother relationship. That was especially the case during recent building booms, when Abbotsford saw prolonged stretches of intense building, while construction activity in Mission remained comparatively light.
Today, Abbotsford has four times more people and an even higher proportion of the area’s businesses and government agencies.
But since the start of the pandemic, construction activity in Abbotsford has been on a dramatic decline, while Mission has seen a significant increase.
Last year, construction started on 743 homes in Abbotsford and 895 in Mission, according to data from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation. It was the first time this century—and the first time in the CMHC data—that Mission building activity topped Abbotsford.
Mission’s boom has been dramatic and sudden. Prior to last year, new home starts in Mission had never exceeded 300.
The construction boom rise has been fueled by large multi-family housing developments, with 90% of all new home starts being either townhomes or apartments. Most are apartments, but the 145 townhome starts in 2022 exceeds the number started in Abbotsford and Chilliwack, combined.
In Abbotsford, meanwhile, the pace of homebuilding in Abbotsford has plunged by around 60% since late 2019 and early 2020. It’s a dramatic drop for a city whose leaders insist they need to increase the supply of housing to keep up with demand and reduce the impact of rising house prices.
The city has seen a particularly severe drop in the number of new multi-family homes being built. Detached house construction has remained level, but far fewer townhomes and apartments are being built. In 2020, only around 15% of new units were detached homes. But last year, 45% of all new starts were single-family houses, the greatest share of such homes in any Fraser Valley municipality. That’s despite the city’s stated desire for more density.
Last June, council was told by staff that building permit applications had hit an all-time high the previous years. But wait times for permit approval had more than doubled since 2017.
Abbotsford can’t just blame a post-pandemic slump, because no other Fraser Valley community has seen such a decline. Council was told last year that other communities were facing similar issues, but the CMHC figures show that no other municipality in the Fraser Valley has seen such a dramatic decline in the number of residential permits actually issued each year.
New home construction in both Chilliwack and Langley is down slightly from previous peaks, but has remained mostly level. And Mission, of course, has seen an unprecedented building boom.