Canadian Housing Starts Trend Increased in June

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

Logo: CMHC (CNW Group/Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation)

OTTAWA, July 11, 2017 /CNW/ - The trend in housing starts was 215,459 units in June 2017, compared to 214,570 units in May 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.

"The trend in housing starts for Canada reached its highest level in almost five years", said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. "So far this year, all regions are on pace to surpass construction levels from 2016 except for British Columbia, where starts have declined year-to-date after reaching near-record levels last summer."

Monthly Highlights

Prince Edward Island

Prince Edwards Island's housing starts continued to trend up during the month of June. Starts of single family homes have been particularly strong the first six months of this year, up 97 per cent compared the same period in 2016.  

Québec CMA

In June, housing starts trended higher in Québec as a result of the construction of a large condominium project. However, in the conventional rental housing segment, year-to-date results show a 22 per cent decrease in housing starts compared to the same period in 2016. This decrease can be explained, in part, by the period of strong activity observed in this segment in 2015 and 2016 and the rise in the vacancy rate.

Toronto

The total housing starts trend in the Toronto CMA remained virtually unchanged in June compared to the previous month. The pace of new home construction has been stable across all housing forms. A minor decline in the single-detached starts trend was offset by gains in the multi-family sector. Glancing further back, construction of ground-oriented homes, which includes single-detached, semis and town homes, have gained momentum throughout 2017, as housing starts so far this year have reached a five-year high. Limited resale supply in combination with strong home buying demand in Toronto have led more buyers to purchase pre-construction units.

Barrie

Higher trending single-detached and row starts have pushed Barrie's total housing starts up for the second month in June. Demand for new homes continued to fuel home starts in the town of Innisfil instead of the land-scarce city of Barrie. The town of Innisfil has become the prime location for the construction of low and medium-density homes in the Barrie CMA.

Oshawa

Oshawa CMA had a record level of seasonally adjusted starts in June 2017, the pace of construction being nearly three times higher than the average seen over the past three years. While all housing types saw increases in June, the row and apartment segments were the clear leaders. Price weary buyers from the Toronto CMA continue to fuel demand for new homes in Oshawa.

Fort McMurray/Wood Buffalo

Fort McMurray has experienced strong rebuilding activity after the wildfires last May. Since January, 785 housing starts have been recorded, twice as many as in the last two years combined. The majority of these new starts have been replacement single-detached homes.

Victoria

Housing starts trended higher in the Victoria CMA last month as new rental projects were initiated in Langford. Total starts for 2017 remain elevated but reduced from the record-setting pace last year. Multi-unit starts have been sluggish to date compared to singles, which are slightly above expectation. However, multi-unit construction remains elevated at 30 per cent above the five-year average. Developers will be keeping an eye on how the market responds to a higher completion rate going forward.  

Vancouver

Vancouver CMA housing starts trended downwards in June, driven by a decrease in apartment starts. In the first six months of 2017, there were 880 ownership apartment starts in the City Vancouver, compared with 3,290 in the first half of 2016.  Given the strong housing starts activity in the past year and the record number of units now under construction, it is not surprising to see starts trend downward according to industry capacity.

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 212,695 units in June, up from 194,955 units in May. The SAAR of urban starts increased by 9.6 per cent in June to 194,773 units. Multiple urban starts increased by 9.4 per cent to 127,944 units in June and single-detached urban starts increased by 10.1 per cent, to 66,829 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 17,922 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
		June 2016	June 2017	%	June 2016	June 2017	%	June 2016	June 2017	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.		90	71	-21	27	43	59	117	114	-3
P.E.I.		13	29	123	14	77	450	27	106	293
N.S.		130	147	13	248	53	-79	378	200	-47
N.B.		82	106	29	33	63	91	115	169	47
Atlantic		315	353	12	322	236	-27	637	589	-8
Qc		819	740	-10	2,404	2,708	13	3,223	3,448	7
Ont.		3,062	3,114	2	4,930	4,204	-15	7,992	7,318	-8
Man.		170	259	52	203	271	33	373	530	42
Sask.		198	204	3	185	210	14	383	414	8
Alta.		844	1,277	51	1,103	1,336	21	1,947	2,613	34
Prairies		1,212	1,740	44	1,491	1,817	22	2,703	3,557	32
B.C.		881	1,001	14	3,213	2,204	-31	4,094	3,205	-22
Canada (10,000+)		6,289	6,948	10	12,360	11,169	-10	18,649	18,117	-3
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission		42	34	-19	64	233	264	106	267	152
Barrie		137	125	-9	135	86	-36	272	211	-22
Belleville		**	48	##	**	2	##	**	50	##
Brantford		14	4	-71	5	45	##	19	49	158
Calgary		339	445	31	491	945	92	830	1,390	67
Edmonton		335	570	70	541	261	-52	876	831	-5
Greater Sudbury		33	17	-48	5	14	180	38	31	-18
Guelph		29	31	7	161	29	-82	190	60	-68
Halifax		66	98	48	219	12	-95	285	110	-61
Hamilton		84	101	20	235	105	-55	319	206	-35
Kelowna		62	77	24	55	134	144	117	211	80
Kingston		38	39	3	12	201	##	50	240	380
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo		180	93	-48	244	150	-39	424	243	-43
Lethbridge		**	41	##	**	17	##	**	58	##
London		175	229	31	338	336	-1	513	565	10
Moncton		37	42	14	20	30	50	57	72	26
Montréal		304	314	3	1,172	1,121	-4	1,476	1,435	-3
Oshawa		249	160	-36	189	438	132	438	598	37
Ottawa-Gatineau		292	318	9	323	401	24	615	719	17
Gatineau		38	8	-79	52	73	40	90	81	-10
Ottawa		254	310	22	271	328	21	525	638	22
Peterborough		47	43	-9	50	11	-78	97	54	-44
Québec		84	107	27	467	1,118	139	551	1,225	122
Regina		90	68	-24	80	117	46	170	185	9
Saguenay		25	18	-28	12	8	-33	37	26	-30
St. Catharines-Niagara		149	124	-17	61	84	38	210	208	-1
Saint John		21	20	-5	0	0	-	21	20	-5
St. John's		70	51	-27	23	39	70	93	90	-3
Saskatoon		95	119	25	87	79	-9	182	198	9
Sherbrooke		49	59	20	41	46	12	90	105	17
Thunder Bay		29	21	-28	12	24	100	41	45	10
Toronto		1,086	1,059	-2	2,962	2,108	-29	4,048	3,167	-22
Trois-Rivières		37	31	-16	56	31	-45	93	62	-33
Vancouver		462	454	-2	2,535	1,515	-40	2,997	1,969	-34
Victoria		81	85	5	398	194	-51	479	279	-42
Windsor		118	108	-8	45	50	11	163	158	-3
Winnipeg		153	231	51	191	265	39	344	496	44
Total		5,012	5,384	7	11,229	10,249	-9	16,241	15,633	-4
Data for 2016 based on 2011 Census Definitions.
Data for 2017 based on 2016 Census Definitions.
Source:  Market Analysis Centre, CMHC

Preliminary Housing Start Data - Seasonally Adjusted at Annual Rates (SAAR)
		Single-Detached			All Others			Total
		May 2017	June 2017	%	May 2017	June 2017	%	May 2017	June 2017	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.		477	532	12	196	492	151	673	1,024	52
P.E.I.		337	240	-29	216	924	328	553	1,164	110
N.S.		1,185	1,340	13	2,582	657	-75	3,767	1,997	-47
N.B.		721	755	5	948	641	-32	1,669	1,396	-16
Qc		5,772	6,098	6	22,014	29,938	36	27,786	36,036	30
Ont.		22,495	27,901	24	29,291	48,019	64	51,786	75,920	47
Man.		3,182	2,943	-8	6,972	3,252	-53	10,154	6,195	-39
Sask.		1,810	1,805	0	2,568	2,520	-2	4,378	4,325	-1
Alta.		13,523	14,225	5	17,595	15,212	-14	31,118	29,437	-5
B.C.		11,222	10,990	-2	34,616	26,289	-24	45,838	37,279	-19
Canada (10,000+)		60,724	66,829	10	116,998	127,944	9	177,722	194,773	10
Canada (All Areas)		73,408	80,080	9	121,546	132,617	9	194,955	212,695	9
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission		521	447	-14	1,068	2,796	162	1,589	3,243	104
Barrie		1,012	810	-20	900	1,032	15	1,912	1,842	-4
Belleville		359	430	20	264	24	-91	623	454	-27
Brantford		368	60	-84	816	540	-34	1,184	600	-49
Calgary		4,783	4,995	4	7,056	11,340	61	11,839	16,335	38
Edmonton		5,832	6,029	3	9,636	3,132	-67	15,468	9,161	-41
Greater Sudbury		163	109	-33	0	168	##	163	277	70
Guelph		337	201	-40	252	348	38	589	549	-7
Halifax		689	889	29	2,148	144	-93	2,837	1,033	-64
Hamilton		260	858	230	1,524	1,260	-17	1,784	2,118	19
Kelowna		1,077	995	-8	4,500	1,608	-64	5,577	2,603	-53
Kingston		311	290	-7	204	2,412	##	515	2,702	425
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo		1,371	767	-44	2,208	1,800	-18	3,579	2,567	-28
Lethbridge		497	460	-7	168	204	21	665	664	0
London		1,407	1,784	27	1,140	4,032	254	2,547	5,816	128
Moncton		253	281	11	1,080	360	-67	1,333	641	-52
Montréal		2,789	2,702	-3	17,996	13,376	-26	20,785	16,078	-23
Oshawa		708	1,202	70	240	5,256	##	948	6,458	##
Ottawa-Gatineau		2,162	2,663	23	6,264	4,812	-23	8,426	7,475	-11
Gatineau		355	84	-76	1,104	876	-21	1,459	960	-34
Ottawa		1,807	2,579	43	5,160	3,936	-24	6,967	6,515	-6
Peterborough		263	294	12	96	132	38	359	426	19
Québec		662	903	36	3,504	13,416	283	4,166	14,319	244
Regina		693	591	-15	2,280	1,404	-38	2,973	1,995	-33
Saguenay		183	119	-35	348	96	-72	531	215	-60
St. Catharines-Niagara		1,347	1,351	0	768	1,008	31	2,115	2,359	12
Saint John		154	128	-17	0	0	-	154	128	-17
St. John's		335	389	16	156	468	200	491	857	75
Saskatoon		984	1,079	10	144	948	##	1,128	2,027	80
Sherbrooke		317	350	10	1,020	552	-46	1,337	902	-33
Thunder Bay		105	111	6	528	288	-45	633	399	-37
Toronto		6,953	10,688	54	15,552	25,296	63	22,505	35,984	60
Trois-Rivières		135	199	47	432	372	-14	567	571	1
Vancouver		4,869	4,798	-1	24,252	18,180	-25	29,121	22,978	-21
Victoria		966	851	-12	1,260	2,328	85	2,226	3,179	43
Windsor		830	954	15	252	600	138	1,082	1,554	44
Winnipeg		2,628	2,538	-3	5,856	3,180	-46	8,484	5,718	-33
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: CMHC media relations, National, Jonathan Rotondo, CMHC Media Relations, 613-748-2734, [email protected] ; Atlantic, Katherine LeBlanc, 902-789-5709, [email protected]; Quebec, Étienne Campeau, 514-496-5458, [email protected] ; Ontario, Angelina Ritacco, 416-218-3320, [email protected]; Prairies, Courtney Gillis, 403-515-3012, [email protected] ; British Columbia, Jeanette Wilkinson, 604-737-4007, [email protected]

Related Links

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