It would appear the Rural Municipality of Hanover has turned the corner following the very slow year for construction in 2015.

Jeremy Neufeld is Planning Manager for Hanover. He says 2015 saw the fewest number of new housing starts in at least a decade with only 70 worth $14.5 million. In 2016, it was a bounce-back year with 113 residential permits pulled worth $26.9 million.

Through the first three-quarters of 2017, there were a total of 102 residential permits worth $24.8 million. By comparison, the same nine-month stretch in 2016 generated 80 residential permits worth $18.9 million.

"I would say we're trending towards an average year," suggests Neufeld. "What we've seen this year is a definite improvement from where we were two years ago in 2015 but I don't think we're going to set records but it's going to be a very healthy end of the year."

Neufeld says Kleefeld is leading the way with the highest number of new housing starts of any urban centre in 2017. There have been 21 permits pulled in Kleefeld, 15 in Mitchell, 12 in Blumenort, 7 in New Bothwell and 4 in Grunthal. The rural area of Hanover has seen 43 new housing starts.

Meanwhile, when you look at total construction, including permits for any type of project in Hanover, 2017 has seen 298 permits pulled worth $38.3 million. That is up from the same period a year ago when there were 271 permits worth $27.8 million.

According to Neufeld, the first and fourth quarters of each year are generally the slowest, which is dictated by the weather.

"We have noticed though that as winters have been trending towards later starts over the last number of years, the construction is going a bit longer," he says. "I'm fairly confident we're going to see a number of permits coming in yet before the snow starts flying."

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