Canadian housing starts trended higher in August

OTTAWA, Sept. 10, 2019 /CNW/ - The trend in housing starts was 218,998 units in August 2019, compared to 208,931 units in July 2019, 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)

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

"The national trend in housing starts increased in August," said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. "Higher trending single-detached starts in urban centres in July and August following roughly a year of declines combined with higher-trending multi-family units in August to push the total starts trend to its highest level since June 2018".

Monthly Highlights

Vancouver
Vancouver Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) housing starts trended lower in August. Compared to the same month last year, both multi-unit and single-detached home starts declined by over 17% in the CMA. However, the year-to-date starts in the CMA remained fairly stable due to a decline in singles starts which was offset by an increase in the multi-units segment.

Calgary
Total housing starts in the Calgary CMA declined in August 2019 compared to the same month last year as an increase in multi-family construction was offset by a decline in single-detached units. Construction activity continues to slow, as year-to-date housing starts remain lower than last year's levels in both the single-detached and multi-family segments of the market. The relatively slow pace of economic recovery and elevated inventories have caused builders to slow down production.

Regina
The pace of total housing starts in Regina slowed in August, following a significantly pullback in multi-family production. While the inventory of newly completed and unsold houses has continued to decline, it remains historically high. In addition, builders are facing moderate economic growth prospects, higher construction costs and weaker new home demand. These factors have contributed to a 62% reduction in total residential construction in 2019, compared to the same period in 2018.

Guelph
New home starts in the Guelph CMA continued their upward trend for the second consecutive month. This month's increase was defined by the growth in single-detached starts, reaching a level not seen since December 2017. Following the slowdown in the single-detached sector last year, Guelph CMA is on track to see recovery in starts of this dwelling type.

Toronto
August total housing starts trended higher in Toronto for all housing types except for semi-detached. Multi-unit home starts are being led by condominium apartments breaking ground because of strong pre-construction sales over the past two-years. Despite single-detached homes trending higher in August, demand for this housing type continues to wane due to rising home ownership costs.

Peterborough
The trend in total housing starts in the Peterborough CMA stood at a 12-year high in August 2019. The increase was generated by higher trending single-detached and multi-unit starts, the latter of which have been trending higher since March. Apartment starts have already surpassed any annual totals in the last 25 years.

Gatineau
Despite a temporary slowdown in August, year-to-date housing starts in the Gatineau CMA have shown strong growth, sitting 58% higher than the same period last year. This significant gain was attributable mainly to the rise in rental housing starts in the Plateau neighbourhood. The aging of the population and the low vacancy rate have continued to stimulate starts of this type in the Gatineau area.

Halifax
Total housing starts in Halifax dropped in August relative to the same month last year. This was due to fewer new apartment starts whereas single-detached construction increased over the same period.  Despite this, total housing starts in the first 8 months of 2019 are 18% higher than the same period last year. It is no surprise the number of new construction so far this year is the highest on record given the very strong housing demand in both resale and rental markets.

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 226,639 units in August, up 1.9% from 222,467 units in July. The SAAR of urban starts increased by 2.0% in August to 213,663 units. Multiple urban starts decreased by 1.4% to 160,388 units in August while single-detached urban starts increased by 13.6% to 53,275 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 12,976 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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Preliminary Housing Start Data in Centres 10,000 Population and Over
	Single-Detached			All Others			Total
	August 2018	August 2019	%	August 2018	August 2019	%	August 2018	August 2019	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.	58	50	-14	22	19	-14	80	69	-14
P.E.I.	33	17	-48	23	49	113	56	66	18
N.S.	116	180	55	305	229	-25	421	409	-3
N.B.	91	100	10	37	231	##	128	331	159
Atlantic	298	347	16	387	528	36	685	875	28
Qc	433	433	-	1,421	2,575	81	1,854	3,008	62
Ont.	1,865	2,209	18	3,657	5,107	40	5,522	7,316	32
Man.	238	174	-27	503	310	-38	741	484	-35
Sask.	99	101	2	159	142	-11	258	243	-6
Alta.	1,016	971	-4	1,778	1,608	-10	2,794	2,579	-8
Prairies	1,353	1,246	-8	2,440	2,060	-16	3,793	3,306	-13
B.C.	794	685	-14	3,018	2,421	-20	3,812	3,106	-19
Canada (10,000+)	4,743	4,920	4	10,923	12,691	16	15,666	17,611	12
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	23	28	22	9	69	##	32	97	203
Barrie	103	45	-56	11	29	164	114	74	-35
Belleville	39	50	28	29	23	-21	68	73	7
Brantford	70	55	-21	16	14	-13	86	69	-20
Calgary	403	337	-16	693	714	3	1,096	1,051	-4
Edmonton	415	440	6	971	812	-16	1,386	1,252	-10
Greater Sudbury	17	29	71	4	22	450	21	51	143
Guelph	12	39	225	116	186	60	128	225	76
Halifax	75	119	59	267	203	-24	342	322	-6
Hamilton	53	147	177	158	68	-57	211	215	2
Kelowna	31	33	6	295	441	49	326	474	45
Kingston	18	46	156	12	222	##	30	268	##
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	46	70	52	109	772	##	155	842	443
Lethbridge	23	36	57	34	14	-59	57	50	-12
London	55	164	198	39	419	##	94	583	##
Moncton	27	32	19	22	120	445	49	152	210
Montréal	127	172	35	798	1,859	133	925	2,031	120
Oshawa	79	70	-11	176	29	-84	255	99	-61
Ottawa-Gatineau	376	302	-20	765	398	-48	1,141	700	-39
Gatineau	59	45	-24	141	48	-66	200	93	-54
Ottawa	317	257	-19	624	350	-44	941	607	-35
Peterborough	28	42	50	15	13	-13	43	55	28
Québec	52	44	-15	165	463	181	217	507	134
Regina	33	28	-15	29	5	-83	62	33	-47
Saguenay	15	29	93	23	10	-57	38	39	3
St. Catharines-Niagara	58	121	109	37	137	270	95	258	172
Saint John	22	20	-9	0	43	##	22	63	186
St. John's	43	36	-16	8	16	100	51	52	2
Saskatoon	53	59	11	114	111	-3	167	170	2
Sherbrooke	6	14	133	30	34	13	36	48	33
Thunder Bay	23	17	-26	12	4	-67	35	21	-40
Toronto	523	557	7	1,971	2,574	31	2,494	3,131	26
Trois-Rivières	7	12	71	2	17	##	9	29	222
Vancouver	431	326	-24	1,663	1,356	-18	2,094	1,682	-20
Victoria	66	56	-15	514	83	-84	580	139	-76
Windsor	58	62	7	65	77	18	123	139	13
Winnipeg	203	142	-30	480	256	-47	683	398	-42
Total	3,613	3,779	5	9,652	11,613	20	13,265	15,392	16
Data based on 2016 Census Definitions.
Source:  Market Analysis Centre, CMHC
## not calculable / extreme value

Preliminary Housing Start Data - Seasonally Adjusted at Annual Rates (SAAR)
	Single-Detached			All Others			Total
	July 2019	August 2019	%	July 2019	August 2019	%	July 2019	August 2019	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.	367	432	18	84	210	150	451	642	42
P.E.I.	212	175	-17	1,488	588	-60	1,700	763	-55
N.S.	1,396	2,024	45	2,172	2,691	24	3,568	4,715	32
N.B.	655	773	18	1,863	2,765	48	2,518	3,538	41
Qc	6,067	6,089	0	41,472	42,683	3	47,539	48,772	3
Ont.	19,205	23,320	21	49,134	58,137	18	68,339	81,457	19
Man.	2,068	1,821	-12	3,720	3,720	-	5,788	5,541	-4
Sask.	877	1,081	23	444	1,704	284	1,321	2,785	111
Alta.	8,609	9,810	14	18,860	18,778	0	27,469	28,588	4
B.C.	7,422	7,750	4	43,433	29,112	-33	50,855	36,862	-28
Canada (10,000+)	46,878	53,275	14	162,670	160,388	-1	209,548	213,663	2
Canada (All Areas)	56,541	62,969	11	165,925	163,671	-1	222,467	226,639	2
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	308	297	-4	2,616	828	-68	2,924	1,125	-62
Barrie	230	361	57	384	348	-9	614	709	15
Belleville	438	455	4	96	276	188	534	731	37
Brantford	518	422	-19	168	168	-	686	590	-14
Calgary	3,227	3,695	15	4,896	8,568	75	8,123	12,263	51
Edmonton	4,057	4,445	10	11,856	9,744	-18	15,913	14,189	-11
Greater Sudbury	139	206	48	216	264	22	355	470	32
Guelph	300	460	53	636	2,232	251	936	2,692	188
Halifax	779	1,142	47	1,776	2,436	37	2,555	3,578	40
Hamilton	405	1,320	226	1,020	816	-20	1,425	2,136	50
Kelowna	579	552	-5	888	5,292	496	1,467	5,844	298
Kingston	252	443	76	732	2,664	264	984	3,107	216
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	996	1,066	7	4,164	9,264	122	5,160	10,330	100
Lethbridge	356	441	24	1,284	168	-87	1,640	609	-63
London	1,470	1,430	-3	1,488	5,028	238	2,958	6,458	118
Moncton	189	261	38	1,068	1,440	35	1,257	1,701	35
Montréal	2,561	2,502	-2	22,358	23,024	3	24,919	25,526	2
Oshawa	993	959	-3	504	348	-31	1,497	1,307	-13
Ottawa-Gatineau	3,145	3,129	-1	6,948	4,776	-31	10,093	7,905	-22
Gatineau	423	459	9	3,072	576	-81	3,495	1,035	-70
Ottawa	2,722	2,670	-2	3,876	4,200	8	6,598	6,870	4
Peterborough	138	341	147	1,140	156	-86	1,278	497	-61
Québec	801	572	-29	8,148	5,556	-32	8,949	6,128	-32
Regina	194	268	38	60	60	-	254	328	29
Saguenay	146	229	57	120	120	-	266	349	31
St. Catharines-Niagara	636	1,300	104	636	1,644	158	1,272	2,944	131
Saint John	190	162	-15	0	516	##	190	678	257
St. John's	243	316	30	72	192	167	315	508	61
Saskatoon	524	642	23	192	1,332	##	716	1,974	176
Sherbrooke	382	369	-3	660	408	-38	1,042	777	-25
Thunder Bay	57	95	67	108	48	-56	165	143	-13
Toronto	5,169	5,970	15	27,780	30,888	11	32,949	36,858	12
Trois-Rivières	224	250	12	384	204	-47	608	454	-25
Vancouver	3,599	3,586	0	28,236	16,272	-42	31,835	19,858	-38
Victoria	527	649	23	3,132	996	-68	3,659	1,645	-55
Windsor	763	599	-21	4,020	924	-77	4,783	1,523	-68
Winnipeg	1,757	1,458	-17	2,952	3,072	4	4,709	4,530	-4
Data based on 2016 Census Definitions.
Source:  Market Analysis Centre, CMHC
## not calculable / extreme value

SOURCE Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

For further information: Angelina Ritacco, Media Relations, CMHC, 416-218-3320, [e-mail]

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