(Photo: submitted by City of Moncton)

Another booming year for construction in the City of Moncton.

It surpassed its best year in annual building activity, by more than 23 percent over 2021, and 43 percent over pre-pandemic levels.

2022 ended with $366 million in building permits, up $69.6 million from the $296 million achieved in 2021.

The biggest win for 2022 was residential development, representing over 58 percent of the year’s permit activity at $214 million.  That’s nearly $51 million more than in 2021.

There were over 344 permits, adding 1,285 new residential units to Moncton’s housing market.

“Based on a high growth projection scenario, the City of Moncton’s population is expected to increase to approximately 116,200 people by 2046. This represents a population growth of 44 percent or 35,400 people,” explains Bill Budd, Director of Planning and Development. “To accommodate this growth, Moncton will need to add 16,100 new housing units to the market over the next 25 years, including a short-term (0-5 year) demand of 4,500 units.

Commercial and industrial activity came in at $63 million for 2022 over 178 permits, with the largest projects being the construction of a manufacturing enterprise located at 650 Frenette Ave. valued at more than $7.3 million and the construction of a service station and repair garage valued at $4.6 million located at 65 Commerce St.

In 2022, downtown building permits totalled $39 million, adding 124 new housing starts to Moncton’s city centre. The biggest development was the construction of a $28.1 million, 114-unit apartment building located at 33 Foundry St. Since 2017, 849 new units have been added to the downtown market.

Institutional development came at $82 million with 39 permits in 2022.

The largest contributing project was the construction of the new Codiac Regional Policing Facility located at 199 Albert St., valued at $41 million.