Canadian Housing Starts Trend Increased in July

OTTAWA, Aug. 9, 2017 /CNW/ - The trend in housing starts was 217,550 units in July 2017, compared to 215,175 units in June 2017, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). This trend measure is a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) of housing starts.

Housing Starts in Canada - All Areas (CNW Group/Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation)

"In July, Canada's pace in housing construction ramped up for a seventh consecutive month," said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. "British Columbia and Alberta were the main contributors to the higher trend in housing starts. While BC's construction coincides with near-record low completed and unsold units in the past few months, Alberta's inventory of new unsold homes is ramping up, highlighting the need for managing inventories."

Monthly Highlights

Toronto

Total housing starts in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area trended lower in July. Lower trending apartment and single-detached starts were mainly responsible for the decline. Overall, total housing starts were still trending close to the average level seen so far this year. Strong increases in semi-detached and town home starts pointed to affordability concerns driving demand for less expensive housing types.

Vancouver

Vancouver CMA housing starts were up slightly in July due to the construction of more townhomes and apartments getting underway. The largest increase in construction activity occurred in Burnaby, New Westminster and Coquitlam, as the relative affordability of more modestly priced townhomes and apartments in these communities supported consumer demand. The number of units under construction in the Vancouver CMA remains near record highs, and developers will be keeping an eye on market conditions as these projects are completed in the coming year.

Calgary

After a slow start, the trend in new home construction this year has increased, moving closer in line with historical averages. Multiple starts in particular have been strong in recent months, including July, despite inventories sitting at near record highs. If the current pace of production does not ease, there is the possibility that inventories will stay elevated for an extended period of time.

Ottawa

July housing starts trended up on the back of strong multiple construction. Multiple starts this year have been driven by the rise in rental apartment starts, which to July reached about 1.5 times their level for 2016 as a whole. Builders are diversifying high-rise product as a substantial number of completed condominium apartment units remain unsold. In addition, an ageing rental stock, and robust rental demand are contributing to increased building activity for rental units.

Gatineau

With construction getting under way on several large rental projects at the same time, housing starts in the Gatineau area were up considerably in July. The rising demand, supported in part by stronger employment, will help residential construction stay on an upward trend over the coming months.

London

Single-detached starts in both the City of London and London CMA posted the highest levels for the month of July since 2007. The continued elevated number of single-detached starts is driven largely by demand spillover from the resale market, which has seen a dramatic increase in the sales of homes priced at $500,000 and over. Also, the price gap between single-detached homes in London and comparable homes in Toronto has continued to remain wide, making London an attractive destination for buyers from the Greater Toronto Area.

Greater Sudbury

Housing starts in Greater Sudbury trended lower in July, due to a decline in both single detached and multiple starts. The trend dipped for the seventh consecutive month, reflecting declines in full-time employment and a healthy supply in the resale market.

Nova Scotia

Construction in both the singles and multiples markets in Halifax continues to show strength in July with year-over-year starts increasing by 15% and 31%, respectively. Year-to-date, the singles market has witnessed the strongest number of starts since 2013, while the multiples market continues to be a driver of residential construction, especially on the Halifax Peninsula and Mainland North regions.

CMHC uses the trend measure as a complement to the monthly SAAR of housing starts to account for considerable swings in monthly estimates and obtain a more complete picture of Canada's housing market. In some situations analyzing only SAAR data can be misleading, as they are largely driven by the multi-unit segment of the market which can vary significantly from one month to the next.

The standalone monthly SAAR of housing starts for all areas in Canada was 222,324 units in July, up from 212,948 units in June. The SAAR of urban starts increased by 5.5 per cent in July to 206,122 units. Multiple urban starts increased by 10.4 per cent to 141,950 units in July and single-detached urban starts decreased by 3.9 per cent, to 64,172 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 16,202 units.

Preliminary Housing Starts data are also available in English and French through our website and through CMHC's Housing Market Information Portal. Our analysts are also available to provide further insight into their respective markets.

As Canada's authority on housing, CMHC contributes to the stability of the housing market and financial system, provides support for Canadians in housing need, and offers objective housing research and information to Canadian governments, consumers and the housing industry.

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Additional data is available upon request. 

Preliminary Housing Start Data in Centres 10,000 Population and Over
			Single-Detached			All Others			Total
			July 2016	July 2017	%	July 2016	July 2017	%	July 2016	July 2017	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.			76	95	25	19	62	226	95	157	65
P.E.I.			16	31	94	15	47	213	31	78	152
N.S.			129	146	13	205	238	16	334	384	15
N.B.			72	122	69	26	74	185	98	196	100
Atlantic			293	394	34	265	421	59	558	815	46
Qc			590	662	12	1,896	2,587	36	2,486	3,249	31
Ont.			2,779	2,691	-3	4,195	4,482	7	6,974	7,173	3
Man.			199	266	34	434	133	-69	633	399	-37
Sask.			203	215	6	223	203	-9	426	418	-2
Alta.			916	1,285	40	1,223	1,561	28	2,139	2,846	33
Prairies			1,318	1,766	34	1,880	1,897	1	3,198	3,663	15
B.C.			1,011	998	-1	2,270	2,922	29	3,281	3,920	19
Canada (10,000+)			5,991	6,511	9	10,506	12,309	17	16,497	18,820	14
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission			52	24	-54	34	157	362	86	181	110
Barrie			92	101	10	126	1	-99	218	102	-53
Belleville			**	39	##	**	36	##	**	75	##
Brantford			9	31	244	24	63	163	33	94	185
Calgary			327	430	31	764	716	-6	1,091	1,146	5
Edmonton			387	498	29	378	716	89	765	1,214	59
Greater Sudbury			29	28	-3	34	2	-94	63	30	-52
Guelph			29	18	-38	4	8	100	33	26	-21
Halifax			72	83	15	148	194	31	220	277	26
Hamilton			87	52	-40	293	204	-30	380	256	-33
Kelowna			52	87	67	143	41	-71	195	128	-34
Kingston			43	42	-2	18	18	-	61	60	-2
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo			133	69	-48	529	304	-43	662	373	-44
Lethbridge			**	45	##	**	18	##	**	63	##
London			138	197	43	41	38	-7	179	235	31
Moncton			30	37	23	21	17	-19	51	54	6
Montréal			261	275	5	1,090	1,553	42	1,351	1,828	35
Oshawa			92	100	9	81	9	-89	173	109	-37
Ottawa-Gatineau			177	276	56	392	1,015	159	569	1,291	127
	Gatineau		17	62	265	141	427	203	158	489	209
	Ottawa		160	214	34	251	588	134	411	802	95
Peterborough			60	32	-47	0	15	##	60	47	-22
Québec			64	118	84	428	364	-15	492	482	-2
Regina			58	84	45	142	105	-26	200	189	-6
Saguenay			24	16	-33	10	10	-	34	26	-24
St. Catharines-Niagara			207	155	-25	65	94	45	272	249	-8
Saint John			12	26	117	2	1	-50	14	27	93
St. John's			58	79	36	15	60	300	73	139	90
Saskatoon			122	111	-9	65	89	37	187	200	7
Sherbrooke			26	12	-54	38	36	-5	64	48	-25
Thunder Bay			23	16	-30	4	2	-50	27	18	-33
Toronto			1,140	928	-19	2,359	2,864	21	3,499	3,792	8
Trois-Rivières			12	27	125	40	34	-15	52	61	17
Vancouver			495	492	-1	1,618	1,906	18	2,113	2,398	13
Victoria			89	84	-6	215	611	184	304	695	129
Windsor			78	81	4	56	41	-27	134	122	-9
Winnipeg			174	207	19	391	83	-79	565	290	-49
Total			4,652	4,900	5	9,568	11,425	19	14,220	16,325	15
Data for 2016 based on 2011 Census Definitions.
Data for 2017 based on 2016 Census Definitions.
Source:  Market Analysis Centre, CMHC
** Belleville and Lethbridge were not metropolitan areas in 2016.
## not calculable / extreme value

Preliminary Housing Start Data - Seasonally Adjusted at Annual Rates (SAAR)
			Single-Detached			All Others			Total
			June 2017	July 2017	%	June 2017	July 2017	%	June 2017	July 2017	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.			549	756	38	506	606	20	1,055	1,362	29
P.E.I.			235	229	-3	924	564	-39	1,159	793	-32
N.S.			1,355	1,278	-6	655	2,699	312	2,010	3,977	98
N.B.			770	756	-2	634	801	26	1,404	1,557	11
Qc			6,287	6,439	2	29,766	29,392	-1	36,053	35,831	-1
Ont.			27,736	25,720	-7	47,738	50,551	6	75,474	76,271	1
Man.			2,905	2,562	-12	3,252	1,596	-51	6,157	4,158	-32
Sask.			1,847	2,181	18	2,520	2,436	-3	4,367	4,617	6
Alta.			14,139	13,597	-4	15,364	18,362	20	29,503	31,959	8
B.C.			10,945	10,654	-3	27,162	34,943	29	38,107	45,597	20
Canada (10,000+)			66,768	64,172	-4	128,521	141,950	10	195,289	206,122	6
Canada (All Areas)			79,883	76,780	-4	133,067	145,543	9	212,948	222,324	4
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission			427	265	-38	2,796	1,884	-33	3,223	2,149	-33
Barrie			803	760	-5	1,032	12	-99	1,835	772	-58
Belleville			423	314	-26	24	432	##	447	746	67
Brantford			61	318	421	540	756	40	601	1,074	79
Calgary			4,903	4,771	-3	11,340	8,592	-24	16,243	13,363	-18
Edmonton			5,963	5,407	-9	3,132	8,592	174	9,095	13,999	54
Greater Sudbury			110	148	35	168	24	-86	278	172	-38
Guelph			204	139	-32	348	96	-72	552	235	-57
Halifax			891	761	-15	144	2,328	##	1,035	3,089	198
Hamilton			882	461	-48	1,260	2,448	94	2,142	2,909	36
Kelowna			972	1,038	7	1,608	492	-69	2,580	1,530	-41
Kingston			297	371	25	2,412	216	-91	2,709	587	-78
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo			784	693	-12	1,608	3,648	127	2,392	4,341	81
Lethbridge			456	480	5	204	216	6	660	696	5
London			1,818	1,973	9	4,032	456	-89	5,850	2,429	-58
Moncton			283	242	-14	360	204	-43	643	446	-31
Montréal			2,682	2,748	2	13,384	18,546	39	16,066	21,294	33
Oshawa			1,136	805	-29	5,256	108	-98	6,392	913	-86
Ottawa-Gatineau			2,556	2,658	4	4,800	12,180	154	7,356	14,838	102
	Gatineau		76	570	##	876	5,124	485	952	5,694	498
	Ottawa		2,480	2,088	-16	3,924	7,056	80	6,404	9,144	43
Peterborough			288	258	-10	132	180	36	420	438	4
Québec			957	1,246	30	13,416	4,368	-67	14,373	5,614	-61
Regina			599	919	53	1,404	1,260	-10	2,003	2,179	9
Saguenay			117	129	10	96	120	25	213	249	17
St. Catharines-Niagara			1,341	1,265	-6	1,008	1,128	12	2,349	2,393	2
Saint John			132	201	52	0	12	##	132	213	61
St. John's			396	694	75	468	720	54	864	1,414	64
Saskatoon			1,080	1,099	2	948	1,068	13	2,028	2,167	7
Sherbrooke			344	136	-60	552	432	-22	896	568	-37
Thunder Bay			108	96	-11	288	24	-92	396	120	-70
Toronto			10,557	9,673	-8	25,296	34,368	36	35,853	44,041	23
Trois-Rivières			204	291	43	372	408	10	576	699	21
Vancouver			4,843	5,116	6	19,020	22,872	20	23,863	27,988	17
Victoria			848	928	9	2,328	7,332	215	3,176	8,260	160
Windsor			893	806	-10	600	492	-18	1,493	1,298	-13
Winnipeg			2,492	2,069	-17	3,180	996	-69	5,672	3,065	-46
Data based on 2016 Census Definitions.
Source:  Market Analysis Centre, CMHC
## not calculable / extreme value

SOURCE Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

CMHC media relations: National & Ontario, Audrey-Anne Coulombe, CMHC Media Relations, 613-748-2573, [email protected]; Atlantic, Natalie Chavarie, 902-426-4262, [email protected]; Quebec, Étienne Campeau, 514-496-5458, [email protected]; Prairies, Renee Nat, 403-515-2963, [email protected]; British Columbia, Jeanette Wilkinson, 604-737-4007, [email protected]

Related Links

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