February 13, 2025
SUMMARY
Total non-residential permit value rose by 16.4% y/y in 2024, primarily owing to the commercial sector. According to structure type, office spaces had the largest y/y % increase in total annual permit value, and looking at CMA revealed London had the largest increase between 2023 and 2024.
PERMITS
While ICI permit values decreased on a monthly basis from November to December, year-over-year increases were positive. Looking at cumulative permit value over the year revealed an increase in all sectors, although the industrial sector was still more tame than the other sectors.
Looking at building types, office buildings had the largest annual increase when comparing the yearly totals between 2023 and 2024. As expected, the bulk of the increase in office came from Toronto (a roughly 60% increase from $1.58B to $2.52B). Another not so surprising revelation was that the increase in the transportation sector mostly came from Toronto as well ($0.56B to $0.96B). Hotels and restaurants saw the most contribution from KW-Cambridge ($0.02B to $0.17B) and London ($0.05B to $0.21B). Medical and hospital permit gains were spread out between Toronto, Windsor (the largest gain), Guelph, Ottawa, and London. School permits increases were concentrated in KW-Cambridge, which saw a massive increase of almost 8x (764%), jumping from $0.06B to $0.56B.
Turning to the permit activity by CMA, three regions stood out in their cumulative yearly gain. Total 2024 permit value in London grew 222.6%, with large gains in factory permits which saw a monumental increase of almost 10x, from about $100M to 1B. This is likely due to permitting activity for the St. Thomas EV battery plant. There were also sizable gains in schools and warehouses which both increased from around $0.06B to $0.17B, transportation which increased from $0.05B to $0.17B, and hotels and restaurants (as noted above). Kingston and KW-Cambridge also saw significant gains of roughly 104% each. As noted above, a large part of the gain in KW-Cambridge was from schools and education permits. Kingston also derived most of its gain from this sector as permits were up from about $0.01B to $0.15B.
_____________________________
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Ali Ahmad
Research Analyst
Ontario Construction Secretariat (OCS)
180 Attwell Drive, Suite 360, Toronto, ON M9W 6A9
P 416.620.5210 ext. 222
aahmad@iciconstruction.com
