The District of Saanich has launched an online portal, or dashboard, to track housing progress across the municipality.
This Housing Dashboard provides a complete view of new residential construction and approved future developments throughout the District.
Furthermore, it tracks development, building and occupancy permit approvals to show residents what housing is actually in the works.
The dashboard utilizes interactive charts and filters, allowing users to see activity by housing type, tenure and completion date at all stages through the development process.
“Saanich has been working really hard to update its planning framework and development review process to better meet the housing needs of its residents,” said Lindsay Chase, director of planning for the District of Saanich.
“This tool will let everyone see the significant progress that is being made, at all stages of the approval pipeline.”
The launch of this tool comes just after the release of the District’s annual Housing Strategy Progress Report, which was presented to Council on March 23rd.
Some of the District’s housing highlights over the past year include:
- 582 new units were completed — a 63% increase from 356 units in 2024
- An increase in building permits issued for the Houseplex form of Small-Scale Multi-Unit Housing (SSMUH) — 99 permits in 2025, versus just four in 2024.
- Progress in creating more non-market housing, with 1,146 new units currently under review or under construction.
The District says that this new housing dashboard was able to be created due to the success of the Council Voting Dashboard Tool that was launched last year.
Both endeavours were made in an effort to provide increased transparency.
This new tool being launched also coincides with the defeat of a recent council member motion that sought a reduction in Saanich’s provincial housing targets.
In 2023, Saanich was among the first BC communities to be singled out by the Province as having a significant need of additional housing.
The District was given a five-year target of 4,610 completed net new builds — meaning any homes that were demolished in that time in the district is subtracted from the total.
As of September 2025, the District had only built 780 net new units, where their two-year target was 1,041.
In the March 16th Saanich council meeting, Councillors Susan Brice and Judy Brownoff moved that Mayor Dean Murdock write to the Province to request a reduction in the District’s housing targets.
This motion was ultimately defeated in a 5-3 vote.
