Heather Wright/The Independent

So far, 2024 has been a very good year for builders, at least compared to last year.

In a report to Lambton County council, Chief Building Official Corrine Nauta said the value of construction in Lambton County in the first quarter of the year nudged toward $42.5 million. That’s about a 35 per cent increase over last year’s $27.7 million in construction.

The report shows the most activity is in the residential market with 95 permits for everything from homes to garages and sheds being issued.

St. Clair Township has the most homes under construction this quarter with 27 building permits issued this year compared to four last year at the same time. That included 10 single family homes, 16 townhouse units and a granny suite.

Plympton-Wyoming is next in line with 10 new home permits taken out. That’s down from 16 in 2023.
Just three permits were issued in Petrolia, two in Enniskillen and one in Warwick Township for new homes. Warwick’s permit was to convert a garage to a granny suite.

In all, 43 home permits were issued up from 27 at the same time last year.

The total value of all residential construction in the first quarter of 2024 was about $28 million compared to $16 million in 2023.

Those figures don’t include Sarnia and Lambton Shores which take care of their own permitting. In Lambton Shores there were 25 new home permits issued with a value of about $4 million. That’s down from 32 last year. There were 90 building permits issued in Sarnia with 26 new dwelling units created.

The construction is valued at $16.2 million up about $1.4 million from 2023.