New home construction reached a record level in the city of Ottawa in 2021, with nearly 30 percent of new housing built in Ottawa’s targeted intensification areas.

The 2021 Annual Development Report shows the start of construction on 9,402 new homes last year, an increase of 1.8 percent over 2020 and the most homes started in a single year since amalgamation in 2000.

Detached homes accounted for 29.5 percent of all new homes started in Ottawa, up from 26.4 percent of all starts in 2020.

Semi-detached homes accounted for 2.3 percent of all homes created last year, while apartments made up 40.3 percent of all homes built.

The report indicates that the proportion of semi-detached and townhouse homes started declined in 2021 from 2020.

Staff say the greater Ottawa Gatineau area ranked fifth in “absolute housing” among Canada’s six largest urban areas in 2021, with 13,280 units built.

While Ottawa Gatineau saw a 1.9 percent increase in housing starts last year, Calgary saw a 62 percent increase in starts, followed by Montreal with 18.6 percent.

Ottawa’s current official plan directs intensification to areas with high transit service levels or where housing may be near employment areas.

The report says building permits were issued for 3,192 residential units in intensification target areas, representing 28 percent of net new unit permits issued in Ottawa.

A total of 1,401 permits were issued around current rapid transit stations, while 1,181 units will be built around future LRT stations.

Council approved a new official plan in October 2021, setting an increasing residential intensification target through 2035. The official plan is still under review by the Ontario government.

Ottawa development report shows the average resale price of a new home was $645,976 in 2021, an increase of 22 percent over the previous year.

The rental vacancy rate in Ottawa was 3.4 percent. The City of Ottawa’s population grew by 0.8 percent in 2021 to 1,054,800 residents.

The downtown area saw the largest population growth in 2021, up 11.7 percent last year compared with a 2.9 percent decline the previous year.