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Small Town Canada set to Skyrocket! Coming to a city Near you! Kelowna, Merritt , Kamloops

433 views · Published 14 January 2017 · 5:35 · Indexed 29 October 2026

Channel: Mike Martins · 2017 · News & Politics

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Is what happened in Vancouver starting to spread to other cities?

Today I'm looking at Kelowna, British Columbia, where housing construction is booming and developers from outside the region are starting to take notice.

I'm going through a Global News article reporting that Kelowna recorded 2,196 housing starts in 2016 — a 72% increase from the previous year, according to figures attributed in the article to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

That's a massive increase.

The article also reports that development applications flooded Kelowna City Hall during 2016, leaving the planning department overwhelmed enough that additional planners were being hired. At the same time, developers who traditionally worked in other Western Canadian markets were beginning to look at Kelowna.

As they say: follow the money.

What I'm asking is whether we're beginning to see housing pressure move outward from Vancouver.

Vancouver has already become extremely difficult for ordinary working people to afford. If people can't buy in Vancouver, where do they go? Do they move farther into British Columbia looking for somewhere they can still afford?

And if developers and investors recognize that demand, do they follow them?

My concern is what happens if cities don't react until affordability is already gone.

I keep thinking about the older Canadian dream: somebody arriving here with almost nothing, working, buying a starter home, raising a family and gradually building a better life.

Can a young working person still realistically follow that path?

I describe today's rental cycle in the video like warming up your car your entire life without ever driving anywhere. You're spending money every month and working constantly, but you don't feel like you're actually getting ahead.

Kelowna may be booming, and increased housing construction can certainly help provide badly needed supply. But with demand also increasing, I think it's worth watching where prices go from here.

Is Kelowna simply experiencing healthy growth, or are we watching the beginning of the same affordability problems we've been talking about in Vancouver?

Coming to a city near you?

Let me know what you think in the comments.

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