The town hall in Quispamsis. (Image: Brad Perry)
Quispamsis is seeing a spike in new housing starts this year, according to the town’s engineering director.
The town’s latest building inspection report shows 22 permits for new single-family dwellings were issued during the first three months of 2021.
That is nearly three times higher than the 10-year average of just under eight permits, according to the report.
“We were quite surprised,” Gary Losier, director of engineering and works, said in a recent phone interview.
Losier said they believe a couple of factors have contributed to the increase in housing starts.
He pointed to a milder-than-normal winter which took the edge off a cold-weather start.
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The town hall in Quispamsis. (Image: Brad Perry)
It seems last spring’s pandemic lockdown had many residents in Quispamsis itching to build.
The town recorded historical high levels of total permits issued, construction permit fee value and the total assessed value of new construction.
It also surpassed 10-year historical averages for essentially every measured category in its annual summary.
“We defied what was the pandemic expectations for 2020,” Gary Losier, the town’s director of engineering and works, told councillors this week.
“When we were in the lockdown in early 2020, we didn’t know what was going to happen for the rest of the summer. I can tell you, looking back, what happened was everybody decided to build something in Quispamsis.”