Advertisement

Corner Brook offers builders construction incentives

Corner Brook delays capital spending for emergency fire pumper purchase

For the second time in a year, Corner Brook is offering incentives for anyone building a new home in 2015.

The city announced Tuesday it will waive development permit fees as well as the first year of property taxes on homes that begin construction this year.

For contracting companies like Discovery Ridge, incentives like these bode well for business.

"I think that makes a big difference, and that up front cost is the stuff that's out of your own pocket, that's not [included] in your mortgage," said project manager Trina Burden.

"There's been a real 'wait and see,' I've seen this in my own development and so I think this will perhaps be a spur to get those people who are interested but have just been wondering."

Mayor Charles Pender says there's a need for new housing in the city and, following a drop in oil prices, he didn't want to see home building projects come crashing down.

"It's pretty well the fallout from the recent provincial budget that saw an increase in HST as of January 1, plus the delay in building the new regional hospital, so those two things combined left us with some concerns that, locally anyway, the impact would probably be much harder on the local economy than it would be on the provincial economy in general."

"Average permits last year were about $850, some were more, some were less. It's based on the square footage of the home. The average tax is somewhere in the vicinity of $2,000," Pender said.

That, in addition to last year's decision to remove landscaping fees — about $2,000 — means the average home owner can expect to save approximately $5,000.

The new housing incentives are effective immediately, but only apply to 2015 builds. The city plans to evaluate the success of the pilot project for 2016.