Canadian housing starts increased in March

OTTAWA, ON, April 19, 2021 /CNW/ - The trend in housing starts was 273,664 units in March 2021, up from 252,636 units in February 2021, 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.

Bob Dugan, Chief Economist, CMHC (CNW Group/Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation)

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

"The national trend in housing starts increased in March, reflecting very elevated levels of activity in January and March 2021," said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. "Multi-family SAAR starts rebounded strongly following decline in February, with Toronto and Vancouver registering particularly large gains in this segment. Single-detached SAAR starts also contributed to the increase in the overall trend in March, but by a relatively modest amount in comparison to Multi-family starts."

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 the multi-unit segment largely drives the market and can vary significantly from one month to the next.

The standalone monthly SAAR of housing starts for all areas in Canada was 335,200 units in March, an increase of 21.6% from 275,567 units in February. The SAAR of urban starts increased by 24.4% in March to 300,973 units. Multiple urban starts increased by 33.8% to 222,358 units in March while single-detached urban starts increased by 3.6% to 78,615 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 34,227 units.

Monthly Housing Starts and Other Construction Data  are accessible in English and French on our website and the CMHC Housing Market Information Portal. Our analysts are also available to provide further insight into their respective markets. Housing starts data is available on the eleventh business day each month. We will release the April 2021 data on May 17 at 8:15 AM ET.

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.

For more information, follow us on Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

Housing Start Data in Centres 10,000 Population and Over
		Single-Detached			All Others			Total
		March 2020	March 2021	%	March 2020	March 2021	%	March 2020	March 2021	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.		4	12	200	1	11	##	5	23	360
P.E.I.		4	10	150	12	2	-83	16	12	-25
N.S.		89	83	-7	36	209	481	125	292	134
N.B.		14	11	-21	89	4	-96	103	15	-85
Atlantic		111	116	5	138	226	64	249	342	37
Qc		380	722	90	2,447	3,673	50	2,827	4,395	55
Ont.		1,327	1,997	50	3,187	6,663	109	4,514	8,660	92
Man.		145	207	43	248	145	-42	393	352	-10
Sask.		64	96	50	48	337	##	112	433	287
Alta.		832	875	5	1,469	1,099	-25	2,301	1,974	-14
Prairies		1,041	1,178	13	1,765	1,581	-10	2,806	2,759	-2
B.C.		515	695	35	1,919	4,838	152	2,434	5,533	127
Canada (10,000+)		3,374	4,708	40	9,456	16,981	80	12,830	21,689	69
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission		25	40	60	26	24	-8	51	64	25
Barrie		22	14	-36	5	0	-100	27	14	-48
Belleville		16	20	25	0	0	-	16	20	25
Brantford		69	31	-55	18	13	-28	87	44	-49
Calgary		376	337	-10	568	721	27	944	1,058	12
Edmonton		374	417	11	863	325	-62	1,237	742	-40
Greater Sudbury		0	4	##	4	0	-100	4	4	-
Guelph		16	7	-56	103	19	-82	119	26	-78
Halifax		58	39	-33	10	157	##	68	196	188
Hamilton		32	66	106	87	54	-38	119	120	1
Kelowna		34	83	144	86	174	102	120	257	114
Kingston		18	45	150	7	200	##	25	245	##
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo		74	79	7	376	286	-24	450	365	-19
Lethbridge		28	25	-11	4	14	250	32	39	22
London		119	158	33	207	77	-63	326	235	-28
Moncton		2	3	50	46	0	-100	48	3	-94
Montréal		130	257	98	1,328	2,211	66	1,458	2,468	69
Oshawa		41	117	185	61	309	407	102	426	318
Ottawa-Gatineau		211	333	58	423	863	104	634	1,196	89
Gatineau		21	28	33	90	154	71	111	182	64
Ottawa		190	305	61	333	709	113	523	1,014	94
Peterborough		12	16	33	122	0	-100	134	16	-88
Québec		52	115	121	394	452	15	446	567	27
Regina		18	22	22	2	78	##	20	100	400
Saguenay		0	6	##	0	20	##	0	26	##
St. Catharines-Niagara		66	100	52	44	188	327	110	288	162
Saint John		4	3	-25	42	0	-100	46	3	-93
St. John's		3	11	267	1	5	400	4	16	300
Saskatoon		42	73	74	41	259	##	83	332	300
Sherbrooke		26	56	115	260	275	6	286	331	16
Thunder Bay		3	1	-67	0	0	-	3	1	-67
Toronto		386	505	31	1,530	4,604	201	1,916	5,109	167
Trois-Rivières		4	26	##	8	40	400	12	66	450
Vancouver		219	261	19	1,507	3,450	129	1,726	3,711	115
Victoria		56	73	30	46	528	##	102	601	489
Windsor		49	19	-61	107	20	-81	156	39	-75
Winnipeg		127	175	38	247	119	-52	374	294	-21
Total		2,712	3,537	30	8,573	15,485	81	11,285	19,022	69
Data based on 2016 Census Definitions.

Housing Start Data - Seasonally Adjusted at Annual Rates (SAAR)
		Single-Detached			All Others			Total
		February 2021	March 2021	%	February 2021	March 2021	%	February 2021	March 2021	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.		500	751	50	16	136	##	516	887	72
P.E.I.		257	414	61	120	24	-80	377	438	16
N.S.		2,071	1,649	-20	3,079	2,699	-12	5,150	4,348	-16
N.B.		1,024	1,144	12	983	57	-94	2,007	1,201	-40
Qc		13,616	11,504	-16	63,480	58,264	-8	77,096	69,768	-10
Ont.		31,433	35,290	12	48,205	83,759	74	79,638	119,049	49
Man.		2,666	2,610	-2	3,816	1,740	-54	6,482	4,350	-33
Sask.		1,670	1,687	1	1,380	4,044	193	3,050	5,731	88
Alta.		13,561	13,848	2	12,450	13,789	11	26,011	27,637	6
B.C.		9,063	9,718	7	32,631	57,846	77	41,694	67,564	62
Canada (10,000+)		75,861	78,615	4	166,160	222,358	34	242,021	300,973	24
Canada (All Areas)		97,821	100,656	3	177,744	234,543	32	275,567	335,200	22
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission		466	543	17	1,572	288	-82	2,038	831	-59
Barrie		969	554	-43	48	0	-100	1,017	554	-46
Belleville		668	562	-16	24	0	-100	692	562	-19
Brantford		598	282	-53	696	156	-78	1,294	438	-66
Calgary		4,709	5,116	9	3,588	8,652	141	8,297	13,768	66
Edmonton		5,926	6,228	5	6,696	3,900	-42	12,622	10,128	-20
Greater Sudbury		135	5,178	##	24	0	-100	159	5,178	##
Guelph		190	99	-48	660	228	-65	850	327	-62
Halifax		1,344	795	-41	1,716	1,884	10	3,060	2,679	-12
Hamilton		538	995	85	7,476	648	-91	8,014	1,643	-79
Kelowna		1,058	1,054	0	1,956	2,088	7	3,014	3,142	4
Kingston		553	693	25	60	2,400	##	613	3,093	405
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo		853	931	9	384	3,432	##	1,237	4,363	253
Lethbridge		340	419	23	1,332	168	-87	1,672	587	-65
London		3,157	2,412	-24	6,240	924	-85	9,397	3,336	-64
Moncton		341	286	-16	24	0	-100	365	286	-22
Montréal		3,207	4,119	28	36,796	26,592	-28	40,003	30,711	-23
Oshawa		2,330	2,040	-12	2,112	3,708	76	4,442	5,748	29
Ottawa-Gatineau		5,543	5,622	1	6,324	10,356	64	11,867	15,978	35
Gatineau		630	514	-18	948	1,848	95	1,578	2,362	50
Ottawa		4,913	5,108	4	5,376	8,508	58	10,289	13,616	32
Peterborough		445	471	6	1,572	0	-100	2,017	471	-77
Québec		2,031	1,649	-19	1,704	5,424	218	3,735	7,073	89
Regina		226	284	26	1,032	936	-9	1,258	1,220	-3
Saguenay		220	232	5	48	240	400	268	472	76
St. Catharines-Niagara		984	1,525	55	1,116	2,256	102	2,100	3,781	80
Saint John		333	241	-28	0	0	-	333	241	-28
St. John's		431	683	58	0	60	##	431	743	72
Saskatoon		1,472	1,340	-9	348	3,108	##	1,820	4,448	144
Sherbrooke		1,602	716	-55	1,680	3,300	96	3,282	4,016	22
Thunder Bay		103	1,330	##	0	0	-	103	1,330	##
Toronto		10,826	8,316	-23	13,788	55,248	301	24,614	63,564	158
Trois-Rivières		442	723	64	132	480	264	574	1,203	110
Vancouver		3,628	3,659	1	24,132	41,400	72	27,760	45,059	62
Victoria		1,058	910	-14	996	6,336	##	2,054	7,246	253
Windsor		589	559	-5	372	240	-35	961	799	-17
Winnipeg		2,113	2,085	-1	3,588	1,428	-60	5,701	3,513	-38
Data based on 2016 Census Definitions.
Source:  Market Analysis Centre, CMHC
## not calculable / extreme value

SOURCE Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

Information on this release: Audrey-Anne Coulombe, Media Relations, CMHC, 613-748-2573, [email protected]

Related Links

www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca