The Canadian Home Builders Association of Central Vancouver Island held a state of the industry address at its eighth annual Building Construction Industry Forum.
Co-hosted with the City of Nanaimo at the Coast Bastion Inn Jan. 13, the evening was a forecast of the year to come with information presented to more than 200 industry professionals trying to gain some insight for planning the year ahead.
Carol Frketich of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation spoke of a forecast of three percent growth in both jobs and household incomes for B.C. while CMHC’s Travis Archibald shared insight into the anticipated housing market with new housing starts not meeting the demands of the market for the central Island area.
Nolan Tabashniuk of RBC discussed banking trends and the forecast of minimal mortgage interest rate adjustments for 2011.
Other topics included understanding customer expectations, ‘green’ projects and niche markets.
Byron Gallant, association president, said the best advice presented at the forum was for members to approach the year with a positive but cautious outlook.
For more information, please go to www.chbacvi.com.