Housing starts declined across Canada, except in Ontario
By Lucas on Apr 08, 2016
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) released its national monthly housing starts report for March 2016, announcing a decline in every region of Canada, except for Ontario.
The trend measure in March was 196,783 units, compared to 201,618 the month before. The trend is a six month moving average of seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR).
“Overall, starts were trending lower in March due to a slowdown in multi-unit construction,” says Bob Dugan, CMHC Chief Economist. “This was the case across the country, except in British Columbia where declining inventories of new and unsold units as well as low levels of new listings in the resale market spurred builders to start new projects.”
The standalone monthly SAAR was 204,251 units, down from February’s 219,077. The monthly SAAR of urban starts went down 7% to 185,022 units. Multiple urban starts decreased 9.7% to 123,207 units, while single-detached starts stayed somewhat steady with a 1.1% decrease to 61,815.
British Columbia, Quebec, Atlantic Canada, and the Prairies all saw a decline in housing starts last month, while Ontario saw an increase. Rural starts are estimated to have reached 19,299 units.
Housing starts in Toronto CMA
Housing starts in Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) trended at 41,916 units, mostly unchanged from February’s 42,252. The standalone monthly SAAR was 55,988 units, a big jump from the 46,974 in February.
“Home starts have been bolstered by a steady number of new apartment starts,” says Dana Senagama, CMHC Principal Market Analyst for the GTA. “What’s more, low inventories of resale homes and strong new home sales over the past couple of years continue to encourage high-rise starts in Toronto.”
The City of Toronto had the most starts in Toronto CMA thanks to many new apartment starts. Markham came in second, also with a high number of apartment starts. Brampton was in third with many single and row starts.
