Within the next four years, the total value of all building permits issued by the City of Warman is likely to top one billion dollars.
From January 2010 to December 2023, a total of $824,809,994 in new residential and commercial construction, as well as renovations and additions, contributed to the growth of one of the fastest-growing cities in the country.
Last year alone, $49.4 million worth of building permits were issued, signalling a healthy rebound from the Covid pandemic slump of 2020 that saw building permit values that calendar year decline to about $26 million.
The busiest year on record for Warman was 2014, when the total value of building permits skyrocketed to nearly $132 million. That year marked the high point of the decade-long building boom for the city, the only 12-month period where construction values topped $100 million.
The figures were contained in a comprehensive report by the Warman Planning and Development department tabled at the Warman City Council Committee of the Whole meeting on Monday, January 15.
The report outlined the quantity, type and value of building permits issued annually from 2010 to 2023.
Warman Planning and Development Manager Brad Toth told the council meeting that 2023 was a “fairly comparable year” to the last few.
“We were slightly down in some of our housing starts but overall value was highest we have had since 2014,” said Toth. “This is partly due to construction costs increasing but also demonstrates some of the larger commercial and residential projects underway. We are expecting 2024 to be similar or slightly better then 2023 in terms of both number of permits and value of construction.”
But Warman wasn’t the only city in the Saskatoon region to experience rapid growth. Martensville also vied for the title of fastest-growing city in Canada, with major investment in residential and commercial construction.
A report by the Martensville Infrastructure and Planning Department tabled at the Martensville City Council meeting on Tuesday, January 16 provided statistics on building permits issued for the years 2015 to 2023 inclusive.
The total value of construction for that nine-year period was $269 million. The years with the most investment were 2015 ($63.6 million) and 2022 ($60.4 million). In both those years, one major project accounted for the bulk of the building permit value: in 2015 it was the Lake Vista/Holy Mary school (valued at $26.9 million); and in 2022 the permit was issued for the Martensville Community Recreation Centre (valued at $46.5 million) currently under construction west of Highway 12 in the Trilogy Ranch subdivision.
In 2023, the City of Martensville issued building permits worth a combined value of $21.96 million, continuing an upward trend following the pandemic-related low-value year of 2020 when construction investments slumped to $12.2 million.