Region’s housing starts slip in August, but building pace well ahead of 2015
The pace of homebuilding in Greater Victoria slowed considerably in August with 150 new housing units started last month, compared with 304 in July of this year and 260 in August 2015.
However, year-to-date, the homebuilding industry is well ahead of last year’s pace, as there have been 2,042 new homes started this year through the first eight months compared with 1,430 through August last year.
In total, there were 2,008 starts through all of 2015. Housing starts include single-family homes, condominiums, townhouses and apartments.
“Because we have already surpassed last year’s total number of starts for the year and the market is very strong — a single month of declining housing starts is not something to be concerned about,” said Casey Edge, executive director of the Victoria Residential Builders Association. “In this kind of market, as strong as it is, you are going to have breather months especially in the multi-family unit sector which depends a lot on when a project moves forward.”
Braden Batch, senior market analyst with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, said in the first eight months of the year, strong building activity resulted in a 36 per cent increase in singledetached home starts and a 46 per cent increase in multi-unit home construction. “For the month of August, the trend measure for housing starts in the Victoria area moved downward as a result of a lower number of multi-unit homes getting underway compared with previous months in 2016.”
Last month, 68 single-family homes and 82 multiples started coming out of the ground in the region. Langford led the way with 53 new homes started, while there were 48 started in Saanich.
According to CMHC, housing starts in the region were trending at 3,341 units in August, compared with 3,501 in July.
The trend is a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates of housing starts, which is the annual total that would result if the pace of construction in the current month continued for an entire year.
The trend measure is used by CMHC to account for considerable swings in monthly estimates and to get a better picture of the state of the housing market.
New homes will be part of a more expensive environment, according to Statistics Canada’s new housing price index, which rose 0.4 per cent in July compared with June. The agency said prices have increased at the national level for 16 straight months.
The new housing price index measures the changes in the selling prices of new homes.
The combined region of Toronto and Oshawa, Ont., was the biggest driver in the overall increase in July as it gained 1.0 per cent. Victoria gained 0.8 per cent, Hamilton 0.7 per cent and Vancouver 0.6 per cent.