Pace of housing starts has slowed
September numbers lower but ‘activity remains robust’
OTTAWA — The pace of housing starts in Canada slowed in September compared with August, but stayed over 200,000 for the fourth month in a row.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said Tuesday the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts slipped to 217,118 units in September, down from 225,918 units in August.
The pace of multi-unit urban starts — condos, apartment buildings and the like — dropped 10.7 per cent to 131,388. That more than offset an increase in single-detached urban starts, which climbed 8.2 per cent, to 67,522. Overall annualized urban starts fell 5.1 per cent in September to 198,910.
Housing starts in Waterloo Region jumped to 486 from 431 in August. Builders poured foundations for 101 single-detached homes, down from 175 in August. Multiunit starts increased to 385 from 256.
The seasonally adjusted annual rate of starts in the region last month was 5,601, down from 7,440 in August.
Bank of Montreal senior economist Robert Kavcic said investment in residential construction seems to have grown again in the third quarter, after declining modestly in the second quarter.
“Canadian homebuilding activity remains robust, with the best population growth in 25 years proving fundamental support,” Kavcic wrote in a report.
The housing corporation’s trend measure, the six-month moving average of the overall monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates of housing starts, slipped to 214,821 in September compared with 220,573 in August.
In the Toronto region, the corporation said the pace of housing starts trended lower by seven per cent in September compared with August, led by a drop in apartment starts.
Meanwhile, Vancouver also trended lower as fewer multi-family home projects started work. The corporation said a record number of units under construction in the region have left little spare capacity to start additional projects.
Statistics Canada also reported Tuesday that Canadian municipalities issued $7.5 billion worth of building permits in August, down 5.5 per cent from July.