The Planning Manager for Hanover says it has been a slower year for construction in the municipality.

Jeremy Neufeld says through the first three-quarters, there were 281 total permits taken out, worth an estimated $54.2 million. That is down from a year ago, when there were 326 permits issued, for $59.9 million.

"Construction has definitely taken a downturn from last year, which I think is kind of what we expected would happen with some of the things that we see going on with the economic impacts of building," explains Neufeld. "Everything from interest rates to just overall cost of building has made things a bit more challenging."

When you compare new housing starts, Neufeld says there were 80 residential permits taken out until the end of September 30th this year, worth $24.2 million. That too is down from a year ago when there were 110 permits for $38.5 million.

Neufeld says Mitchell continues to lead the way with 25 new housing starts, followed by 22 in the rural area and 13 in Kleefeld. 

He notes one of the highlights this year has been what is happening in Grunthal. 

"Grunthal has had little to no residential development for the last number of years due to a lack of available building lots," explains Neufeld. "(A) large residential development that we had been working on for a while was able to finally bring their first phase online this year and we've seen 11 permits issued in there. So that's one of the exciting things that we're seeing happening this year is this movement going on in Grunthal."

Meanwhile, there have been seven new housing starts in Blumenort and two in New Bothwell. 

Neufeld says it is hard to predict what the last quarter will look like in Hanover. He notes things tend to slow down at this time of year as winter starts to set in. Neufeld says historically there is a bit of a fall push that happens, though this year they have yet to see that.

"But we also haven't had a lot of really cold days yet to trigger some of that, so that still might be coming," he adds.

Either way, Neufeld says he does not expect enough will happen to reverse the downward trend for 2023.

 

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