{"id":8084,"date":"2026-04-15T16:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T23:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/?p=7616108"},"modified":"2026-04-15T16:30:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T23:30:06","slug":"kelowna-may-lower-fees-for-home-builders-in-response-to-complaints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/inhome\/news\/8084\/kelowna-may-lower-fees-for-home-builders-in-response-to-complaints\/","title":{"rendered":"Kelowna may lower fees for home builders in response to complaints"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The City of Kelowna is considering dropping fees for developers after home builders complained that building homes was too expensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About a month ago, the Canadian Home Builders Association wrote a public letter criticizing the city for not doing enough to help promote housing construction. The next day, the city responded and said the association\u2019s letter had \u201cinaccuracies\u201d, but now it has appeared to have changed its tune.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday, April 20, the city is going to look at options for dropping some development cost charges, or DCCs, for builders which are meant to pay for things the city needs to do to facilitate more population growth and housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city could drop all development cost charges by 20 per cent over the next year, or put a freeze on charge increases for the next two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report to council mentions the challenging economy and the fact that the city can do more to help keep positive momentum going in the housing market to avoid sliding back into a more serious housing crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBoth the Urban Development Institute and Canadian Homebuilders Association – Central Okanagan have made note of several ways in which City actions could make new development more viable, until the market recovers,\u201d the report reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Development cost charges were one of the association\u2019s complaints in its letter last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDevelopment cost charges on carriage homes were increased to more than $25,000 per unit, a dramatic escalation compared to previous years. Off-site requirements and servicing standards have compounded those costs,\u201d the association wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelowna\u2019s development cost charges range from $28,000 for an apartment up to $52,000 for a single family home. Those figures are in the middle of the pack for municipalities in B.C. with West Kelowna\u2019s apartment charges at the low end of roughly $12,000 and North Vancouver\u2019s apartment charges at more than $60,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years the city has promoted a lot of new construction, exceeding the provincial housing target<\/a>, building 6,079 new ownership homes since 2021 and increasing the vacancy rate from 1.7 per cent in 2024 to 6.2 per cent at the end of 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its initial response to the association the city said it has done what it can to promote new housing while the main factors affecting new construction and hurting builders are global and outside of any municipality\u2019s control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBuilders in cities with fees that are both higher and lower than Kelowna are also struggling to make projects viable, in a market that is not currently demanding as much housing,\u201d the city said in March. \u201cKelowna has been a national leader in advocating for and developing policies and processes to facilitate more housing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Ron Cannan included a statement on development cost charges and how the goal should be making home ownership affordable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUltimately, I believe success should be measured not only by how much we build, but by what kind of units and whether the people who live and work in Kelowna can afford to call it home,\u201d Cannan said in the statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cBoth the Urban Development Institute and Canadian Homebuilders Association – Central Okanagan have made note of several ways in which City actions could make new development more viable, until the market recovers.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":547,"featured_media":8085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"guid":"","source":"","byline":"","published":"","updated":"","_infotelid":"","_prepressid":"","_multisite_post_sync":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1680,541,543],"tags":[],"region":[322,323,324,325],"class_list":["post-8084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-local","category-topnews","region-kamloops","region-kelowna","region-penticton","region-vernon"],"blocksy_meta":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/inhome\/news\/8084\/kelowna-may-lower-fees-for-home-builders-in-response-to-complaints\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Kelowna may lower fees for home builders in response to complaints","url":"http:\/\/infonews.ca\/inhome\/news\/8084\/kelowna-may-lower-fees-for-home-builders-in-response-to-complaints\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/infonews.ca\/inhome\/news\/8084\/kelowna-may-lower-fees-for-home-builders-in-response-to-complaints\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/inhome-hd-mediaitemid107925-2930.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/inhome-hd-mediaitemid107925-2930.jpg"},"articleSection":"Featured","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jesse Tomas"}],"creator":["Jesse Tomas"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"iNhome","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2026-04-15T23:30:00Z","datePublished":"2026-04-15T23:30:00Z","dateModified":"2026-04-15T23:30:06Z"},"rendered":"