Developers say ‘screaming halt’ coming in Brandon

BRANDON — There’s been a surge in residential construction in Manitoba’s second-largest city as developers race to beat a significant boost to fees imposed by the municipal government to pay for related infrastructure.

The City of Brandon issued permits for 75 per cent more dwelling units in 2025 compared to the previous year, city reports show.

Ryan Nickel, acting general manager of development services, and three development professionals told the Brandon Sun on Thursday there’s a connection between the increase and upcoming fee increases.

“When fees go up, we do see a little bit of a rush to get permits to pay lower fees or take advantage of former rules,” Nickel said.

The city issued permits for 411 residential dwelling units last year, compared to 235 in 2024, 193 in 2023, 259 in 2022 and 162 in 2021.

Evan Keller of Keller Developments and Joel Cardinal-Schultz of Concept Homes both said they expedited projects last year to get permits in before the cost increases.

Shawn Wood of the Construction Association of Rural Manitoba said the same has been true in the broader Brandon development market.

Developers expect the rates to more than double for high-density residential projects in emerging areas by as early as the end of this year.

The city approved the increases last year to help recover the cost of services such as water and wastewater infrastructure. The most significant changes to development fees must be approved by the Public Utilities Board.

Cardinal-Schultz said the increases definitely affected planning for his custom-home development business.

“I would say that we had a rush last year to get in as many permits as possible before the development charge increases, for sure,” Cardinal-Schultz wrote in an email.

“The houses that we had signed contracts for, we did what we could to get them ready for the permit stage to save our clients money where we could.”

While construction is beginning on some of those projects now, the workload has been fairly consistent for the past four years, he said.

Keller, president of Keller Developments, agreed the incoming increases account for the surge. “I think you’ve got a lot of developers getting ahead of that,” he said.

Keller’s recent project, which includes 165 units in 13 buildings on Braecrest Drive, broke ground in November, getting in “under the wire.”

He said he was able to take advantage of the current development cost charges as well as lower interest rates; he believes he’s not the only builder in Brandon to work within this window.

Keller believes the Brandon market will look good for 24 months before a major slowdown. “I think once this burst is done, you’re going to see things come to a screaming halt,” he said.

Keller said the city must provide more incentives to developers. Both he and Wood said developers are looking to rural municipalities that offer better rates.

Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett said the city can only go so far in supporting development, he said.

“The bottom line is, we need to be paying for the water and wastewater and we need to pay for it because we are adding people, because we are building new places.”

— Brandon Sun