Pace of new home builds moderates

The pace of new home construction in Calgary moderated in November, falling about 10 per cent from a year ago due to a slowdown in multi-family starts, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.

The agency said housing starts in the Calgary area last month dipped to 990, down from 1,106 in November 2011.

Multi-family starts dropped to 479 units from 660 in November 2011, while singledetached starts rose to 511 from 446 last year.

Richard Cho, CMHC senior market analyst in Calgary, said total November starts were in step with the previous six months.

Total starts in the Calgary region were at 11,975 through November, up from 8,322 for the same period a year ago. Single-detached starts of 5,433 have risen from 4,619 while the multi-family sector is up to 6,542 from 3,703 in 2011.

Robert Kavcic, economist with BMO Capital Markets, said Alberta notched a solid gain in November, “and starts are within a hair of the highest level since early 2008 amid relatively strong housing momentum on the Prairies.”

In November, the annualized rate of starts in Alberta was 38,900, up from 33,300 in October.

Nationally, Canadian housing starts fell 3.6 per cent in November.

Sonya Gulati, senior economist with TD Economics, said homebuilding in Canada has noticeably softened in the last few months.

“This slower pace of activity was largely expected given what has taken hold in the resale housing market in the second half of the year,” she said. “Over the past few years, construction projects have also been exceeding demand fundamentals, a trend which is simply not sustainable.”