How Moncton’s Hot Housing Market Is Keeping Contractors Busy
MONCTON–A contractor specializing in preparing land for new housing developments only needs to look at the pipe they’re putting into the ground to get a sense of the city’s busy real estate market.
LCL Excavation CEFO Jean-Philippe Levesque told Huddle that in 2021, the Charlo-based contractors laid 13 kilometres of underground utilities, including water, sewer, and storm mains. This year, they expect to lay more than 20 kilometres, with most going into the ground in the Moncton area.
LCL Excavation Inc. has been busy preparing the utilities and roads that new housing starts rely on in three new Moncton subdivisions: Royal Oaks, Camelot Cove, and Mountainway Estates.
In the case of the latter, lots have sold out so quickly Arseno General Contractors will be completing what was expected to be a 15-20-year project in about half the time. That popularity is a testament to Moncton’s hot real estate market that is persisting into the summer, following a record-setting number of building permits issued in the first quarter of 2022. It’s something Levesque and LCL Excavation’s head of business development, Sebastien Landry, are seeing with their own work.
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Landry said most of the lots they’re working on are sold to owners before they even get to the site to do the work.
“Most of the lots we service are promised to somebody before we even mobilize on the site [and] I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the case before,” said Landry, noting LCL has only been doing the work for a couple of years.
“If someone wanted to buy a lot this year, they might be a little late,” he added.
LCL Excavation’s work includes removing trees, ‘grubbing’ the land (removing organic matter), and, as its name implies, excavation for underground utilities and installations. The company, which employs about 80 people on its work sites, then moves on to building the roadway–but that takes time.
“In Moncton, when considering the soil conditions, you have to wait a year and go through the winter before installing the asphalt and concrete curbing and sidewalks,” said Landry.
“You want the ground to settle and fall back into place before the asphalt and concrete get put in place the season after, usually during the summer. The life cycle can take a while and on the developer’s side it can take years before a piece of land is ready for development.”
Landry said LCL Excavation started out serving customers in the Restigouche area but decided to take work in larger centers like Moncton and Fredericton, where it’s seeing the demand and opportunity.
LCL Excavation has also been contracted to upgrade municipal infrastructure on Maple Street, Huron Avenue, and Hemlock Avenue.
“We removed the self-limiting belief that geography limited us because we wanted to serve who we could serve best and the answer was new subdivisions and municipal refurbishing. Most of the people in need of that service are in Moncton, so here we are,” said Levesque.
“There aren’t many paved streets with empty lots–people will build their house and be finished before the road is paved.”
Sam Macdonald is a Huddle reporter in Moncton. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].