Single-family construction starts see a rise in October, CMHC reports
And as we look ahead into 2018 and 2019, we’re also forecasting some positive growth.
Builders turned shovels for 50 more single-family homes in the Calgary area last month than the same time in 2016.
There were 385 construction starts on single-family homes in the Calgary census metropolitan area, a 13 per cent upswing year over year, says Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.
The census metropolitan area includes work in nearby cities and towns, such as Airdrie, Chestermere and Cochrane.
While new single-family builds continue to outpace the same time a year ago, the gap is starting to close, says Richard Cho, CMHC’s principal of market analysis.
“The year-over-year increase is slowing down,” says Cho. “For example, during the spring and sum- mer we were up 30 per cent and now we’re seeing numbers below that, in terms of the year-over-year increase.”
“In terms of economic activity, it’s still been pretty positive,” he adds. “We’re still seeing some job growth in the market.
“In the first half of the year I think some of the increase was due to some pent-up demand. Now that we’ve had a few months of that, I think that pent-up demand is starting to disappear.”
An increase in supply in the new and resale home markets are likely factors, as well, he adds.
CMHC says there were 409 constructed but unabsorbed new single-family homes in the Calgary area last month, up from 349 a year ago.
On the resale market, singlefamily inventory last month was up 26 per cent year over year, says the Calgary Real Estate Board. New listings also rose 12 per cent.
“In terms of expectations for this year, even though the pace of activity has started to moderate, we’re still going to see more housing starts this year compared to last year,” says Cho. “And as we look ahead into 2018 and 2019, we’re also forecasting some positive growth.”
New construction in the Calgary area was the second busiest of any urban centre in Alberta last month. The Edmonton census metropolitan area led the way with 413 starts, the same tally it recorded a year ago.
For the Calgary area, it was the ninth straight month that northwest Calgary paced all ends of the city in construction starts of single-family homes. With 101 homes breaking ground last month, the quadrant almost doubled the next most active end of the city, southeast Calgary, with 53.
Elsewhere, there were 51 starts in northeast Calgary, 40 in the Fish Creek area, 24 in southwest quadrant, and 10 in the city’s North Hill area.
Part of last month’s year-overyear increase in new single-family construction was driven by two centres outside of the Calgary city limits. Starts in Airdrie grew to 49 from 37, while Cochrane’s increased to 29 from 16.
For supply of new single-family homes in the Calgary area, the northwest quadrant carried the lead. With 115 of these homes available for possession last month, it was the only end of the city to be in triple-digits. The next highest number of constructed but absorbed single-family homes came from northeast and southeast Calgary with 46 and 45, respectively, says CMHC.