Vancouver issued 2,036 permits in the half — the smallest count in this series — carrying $3.11B of screened value. That is an average stated permit of $1.56M, more than four times New York's and higher than any other market Builtie tracks. 16.8% of its permits are demolitions, also the highest here. Vancouver is not adding buildings so much as replacing them, one expensive project at a time.
Around 300 to 430 permits a month, and a value line that moves by a factor of seven between months — $190M in April against $1.35B in March. With this few permits, a single tower is the whole month.
Issued-permit density at roughly one-kilometre resolution. Vancouver is one of only two markets in this series whose coordinates survive our bounding-box check; the badge on the map states exactly how many permits are plotted.
Bhullar Excavating, Apollo Excavating, Akal Demolition. In a market where one permit in six is a teardown, the firms filing most often are the ones who go first — which makes this list an early-warning feed for every trade that follows them onto the site.
| # | Applicant of record | Permits | Screened value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bhullar Excavating and Demolition | 37 | $2M |
| 2 | Apollo Excavating & Civil Works Ltd. | 22 | $1M |
| 3 | Reotech Construction Ltd | 18 | $10M |
| 4 | David Steer DBA: LMDG Building Code Consultants Ltd. | 17 | $7M |
| 5 | Janay Koldingnes DBA: Edit Studios Inc. | 16 | $9M |
| 6 | AKAL DEMOLITION & EXCAVATING LTD | 14 | $1M |
| 7 | CANADIAN EXCAVATING LTD. | 13 | $1M |
| 8 | Hans Demolition and Excavating Ltd. | 11 | n/a |
| 9 | Kingsman Excavating Ltd. | 11 | n/a |
| 10 | Marino General Contracting Ltd | 11 | n/a |
| 11 | Central West Project Management Inc. | 10 | $1M |
| 12 | East West Excavating 2022 Ltd | 10 | n/a |
| 13 | Van-City Excavating Ltd | 10 | n/a |
| 14 | Fusion Project Management Ltd | 9 | $10M |
| 15 | GNA Contracting Ltd | 9 | n/a |
| 16 | JVT EXCAVATING & DEMOLITION LTD | 9 | n/a |
| 17 | Simon Boisvert DBA: BC Home Drafting & Consulting Ltd. | 9 | n/a |
| 18 | Vema Deconstruction Ltd | 9 | $1M |
| 19 | Aqua Homes Development Ltd | 8 | $6M |
| 20 | Banks Architecture & Permitting | 8 | $1M |
| Type | Permits | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Addition / Alteration | 1,220 | $536M |
| New Building | 473 | $2.55B |
| Demolition / Deconstruction | 343 | $25M |
Ranked by the construction cost stated on the permit, after the value screen described in the methodology. These are single permits, not whole developments — a tower can appear as several.
| # | Work | Applicant | Stated cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Certified Professional Program - New Building - To construct a 31-storey mixed-use building with 256 residential units, retail space on the first floor, assemb2090 W BROADWAY, Vancouver, BC V6J 1Z4 | John Bolduc DBA: Jensen Hughes | $190.0M |
| 2 | Certified Professional Program - New Building - This permit is for the site work and construction of a basement storage garage for the following development: T188 E 5TH AVENUE, Vancouver, BC | Axiom Builders Inc | $177.5M |
| 3 | Certified Professional Program - New Building - To develop a 27-storey mixed-use building containing two Retail CRUs on Level 1, offices on Level 3, indoor and 1436 W 8TH AVENUE, Vancouver, BC V6H 1E1 | David Ho | $150.0M |
| 4 | Certified Professional Program - New Building - To construct a new 34-storey mixed-use building containing 679 below market rental dwellings, 6 (six) CRUs (shel3380 VANNESS AVENUE, Vancouver, BC V5R 6B8 | Axiom Builders Inc | $144.8M |
| 5 | Certified Professional Program - New Building - To construct a mixed-use building with 2 residential towers (282 secured market rental units) consisting of: Po1738 W 11TH AVENUE, Vancouver, BC V6J 2C3 | ITC BC BUILDERS INC. | $105.0M |
| 6 | Certified Professional Program - New Building - To construct a 7-storey (Z/D 6-storey) Private Care Facility non-combustible building consists of: 1st storey - 3329 W 41ST AVENUE, Vancouver, BC V6N 3E5 | MARCON PROJECT (661) LTD. | $101.2M |
| 7 | Certified Professional Program - New Building - To develop a 32-storey apartment containing a total of 300 dwelling units (242 Secured Market Rental and 58 Belo1088 BURNABY STREET, Vancouver, BC V6E 1N7 | APG Construction Ltd | $95.1M |
| 8 | Certified Professional Program - New Building - This permit is for the site work and construction of a basement storage garage for the following residential dev590 W 29TH AVENUE, Vancouver, BC V5Z 2H7 | Alabaster Construction GP Ltd | $90.0M |
| 9 | Certified Professional Program - New Building - To construct a new 6-storey seniors community care (class B) facility classified as Group B-3 Major Occupancy co2010 HARRISON DRIVE, Vancouver, BC V5P 2P6 | Lark Projects Ltd | $83.0M |
| 10 | Certified Professional Program - New Building - Parcel C of Phase 1 of the Pearson Dogwood redevelopment. To construct a 29 storey mixed-use building with 9-st688 W 57TH AVENUE, Vancouver, BC V5X 1S9 | Onni Contracting Ltd | $72.8M |
Permit counts are directly comparable. Dollar figures are not fully comparable across borders and jurisdictions — each city defines "construction value" its own way, and the coverage column shows how many of its permits state one at all. A market is marked withheld where that share is too low to stand behind.
| Market | Permits | YoY | Screened value | Avg per costed permit | Cost coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 53,624 | n/a | $17.14B | $376K | 85% |
| Miami | 20,481 | +0% | $9.88B | $495K | 97.4% |
| Austin | 14,915 | -2% | withheld | n/a | 7% |
| Calgary | 9,603 | -14% | $2.93B | $333K | 91.6% |
| Nashville | 4,287 | -1% | $1.69B | $394K | 100% |
| Chicago | 3,667 | -1% | $4.88B | $1.3M | 100% |
| Seattle | 3,011 | -1% | $1.80B | $604K | 99.1% |
| Hamilton | 2,337 | -7% | $897M | $405K | 94.7% |
| Vancouverthis report | 2,036 | -9% | $3.11B | $1.6M | 98.2% |
A report is only worth the disclosure attached to it. This is the whole of it.
$1,000,000,000, and any value at or above $10,000,000 that repeats on five or more permits in the same city — a parent project total stamped onto its sub-permits, which would otherwise be counted once per sub-permit. No permit in this market tripped either rule. A percentile trim was tested and rejected: it cannot tell a corrupt value from a genuine large tower.Builtie's coverage is North America wide and it is not uniform, because permit data quality is set by what each municipality publishes. The Greater Toronto Area remains the deepest market for project, builder and decision-maker data. Ask us for live sample projects in Vancouver before you take any number here on trust — that is the right test, and we would rather you ran it.
Unlocking the full Vancouver report…