N.B. cities getting denser as they respond to population growth

New Brunswick's three largest cities are increasingly turning to high-density residential developments to keep up with the soaring demand for housing. 

Moncton, Fredericton and Saint John are issuing building permits for more apartment buildings and other multi-unit projects as rapid population growth pushes them to build up — not out.

In Moncton — one of the fastest-growing areas in Canada — the population surpassed 97,000 in 2024, up from just under 78,000 in 2020. That surge is reshaping the city's housing landscape. 

"A good year" used to mean 500 to 600 new housing units, said Josh Davies, Moncton's manager of long-range policy planning. Now the city is preparing for closer to 900 units annually, with the majority being high-density projects like multi-storey apartment buildings.

Already this year, Moncton has issued permits for more than 700 new units, with large-scale residential projects leading the way. 

"We'll probably continue to have a bit of a deficit to build out of," Davies said. "I guess in some ways it's a bit of a good problem to have in terms of keeping those permit numbers up and keeping that development going."

Fredericton is feeling similar growing pains. The city's growth strategy from 2017 projected 1,200 new residents a year until 2041. 

Instead, the city grew by more than 2,000 residents in some recent years and by more than 3,000 last year, said Fredrick Van Rooyen, a planner with the City of Fredericton

"We've really been seeing, since more or less the pandemic, so really the last five years is really unprecedented growth in Fredericton and especially the urban areas of New Brunswick overall," Van Rooyen said.

Until a few years ago, about 300 new units a year were built in Fredericton, but this has more than doubled since 2022.

In the first four months of this year alone, the city issued building permits for 324 new units, and Van Rooyen said it's on pace for 1,000 new units this year, driven by multi-unit development.

To ensure projects meet standards and building codes, cities require building permits for new buildings, additions, or significant alterations to existing buildings,  

WATCH | Why housing is becoming denser in N.B. cities: 

N.B. cities hope to permit record housing construction this year to keep up with demand

7 hours ago

Duration 4:54

Fredericton, Moncton and Saint John are trying to keep up with five years of population growth and see more apartment buildings and other multi-unit housing as a key part of the solution.

Two notable Fredericton projects permitted this year are a 10-storey apartment building on York Street near Victoria Street on the south side, and a six-storey building on Cuffman Street on the north side. These developments could take ne to two years to complete. 

Van Rooyen said development is changing in the city, and multi-unit development has overtaken single-detached dwellings. He said 80 to 90 per cent of units in the past five years have been multi-unit.

"There's certainly still a market for single detached and home ownership," Van Rooyen said. "Obviously, it's still an important part of the housing market. But just from a supply perspective to keep up with that demand, it's going to be driven by multi-residential."

Moncton has seen big multi-unit developments so far this year as well. Permits were issued this year for a 143-unit apartment building on Millennium Boulevard and a 77-unit building on Waterloo Street.

Following the same trend, Saint John has issued building permits for 11 apartment buildings this year, including a 40-unit building in east Saint John near the Little River Reservoir Park and another 34 units on Millidge Avenue in the north end. 

"We're seeing a number of large residential projects happening across the city, in all areas of the city, and this is something we hadn't seen previously prior to the pandemic," said Christopher McKiel, the director of development and community standards for Saint John.

The city has seen 193 units permitted so far this, fewer than last year's record 307 units during the same period, but big projects are still being approved.

McKiel said more than a dozen developments representing more than 1,100 residential units are waiting to be permitted and could break ground in the next year.

Keeping up with the pace

The population of New Brunswick as of April 1 was about 860,000, up from about 781,050 in the first quarter of 2020.

David Hickey, the minister responsible for the New Brunswick Housing Corp., said he understands the population growth and related housing demand the Liberals inherited when they formed the government last fall.

His department wants to hit 6,000 new units a year across the province, or 30,000 units by 2030.

"That's the need in the province," Hickey said. "That's what we're seeing map out where we need to be … and we're on the right track, I think, in terms of the number of units that we need to be building."

Fredericton projected this year that it will need to add almost 20,000 housing units by 2044.

Van Rooyen said the city's rental vacancy rate is less than one per cent where a healthy rate is between three to five per cent.

"We're going to hopefully try to continue to see the development community keep pace with that. But that's sort of the challenge ahead of us is trying to keep pace with that housing need."

Davies said Moncton's population growth is already ahead of city projections made in February 2024.

"We're in 2031 today with the projected population that we have, which we believe or should be confirmed soon, is around over 100,000 people in the city of Moncton just itself," Davies said.

Saint John has grown by just over 7,000 people since 2020, after the city experienced a decline in growth from 2006 to 2016.

The city is reviewing its growth strategy and its goal now is to fulfil the federal government's Housing Accelerator Fund agreement of 1,158 new units between 2024 and 2026. 

'Ramping up to this'

Hickey said he believes removing the harmonized sales tax on new multi-unit projects and a commitment to property tax reform had some influence on increased development this year.

"I think this is a big testament to the impact that removing the HST had. 15 per cent cheaper to build. People aren't going to sit on land that they had before."

Mylène Vincent, the CEO of Pivot Housing Solutions, a Moncton real estate development consulting company, agreed removal of the HST, along with population growth and other factors, spurred some building.

Her business works with municipalities, including Saint John, and has seen developers from Ontario and Quebec become more interested in the Atlantic provinces in recent years.

"I think that this is a result of a few years of ramping up to this," Vincent said. "Honestly, I think developers have noticed the increase in population, the attractiveness of Atlantic Canada, in particular New Brunswick."

She said the predominantly multi-unit projects being permitted by municipalities are "a trend in the right direction."

But more attention needs to be paid to non-profit developers that want to develop affordable housing, she said.

"When we're looking at if it's the right kind of housing that's being built, we need to have a balance on what is market housing versus what is community housing."

Vincent said that municipalities can "take a leadership role" in allocating their own land for non-profit development.

Fredericton, Saint John and Moncton said they make land available to developers to create affordable housing.