Edmonton homebuilders experience unexpected boom in business

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally included a statistic provided to Global News by a homebuilder that they later said may actually be inaccurate. As a result, we have removed the line referencing that particular statistic.

Despite the financial blows many Edmonton-area businesses have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, one sector is experiencing quite the opposite.

“I thought I’d be in the dumps by now, but yeah, it’s looking pretty good, ” Ashton Custom Homes owner Matthew Glowicki said.

It’s been a year Glowicki said he thought he wouldn’t have.

“Last year was a pretty slow year for me — this year, I’m up about 100 per cent in sales,” he said.

Despite higher priced lumber and material costs increasing the cost of homes, builders say that hasn’t stopped people from jumping into the market.

“As sales have picked up, we’re running out of homes in certain neighbourhoods and certain types of neighbourhoods, so we’re trying to put homes into the ground as fast as we can to meet demand,” Rohit Group of Companies president Rohit Gupta said.

Statistics from the Canadian Home Builders’ Association show the number of building permits nearly doubled in the capital region.

There were 605 building permits issued for single-Family homes last month, compared to just 344 in February 2020.

“People have increased savings over the last year, there’s lower interest rates… life is moving forward, people are forming families, people are starting to get married,” Gupta said.

He added that the overwhelming demand has led to the need for more help.

“Right now, we have about 15 to 20 positions available, we’re trying to fill both administrative staff, we’re trying to find field personnel and we’re even looking for sales personnel to process deals,” Gupta said.

He noted that while he expects 2021 will continue to be a busy year, he is also cautiously optimistic about 2022.

Glowicki said he just hopes this boom will keep booming.

“I don’t know if this is just a little burst of something good and then it’s going to die down in six months, hopefully it keeps rolling and the economy keeps up,” he said.