Canadian housing starts remain steady through April

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) released its monthly housing starts figures for April 2016, announcing that housing starts across Canada have remained steady.

The trend measure for April 2016 was 195,064 units, basically unchanged from March’s 196,103. The trend is a six month moving average of seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR).

The standalone monthly SAAR for Canada was 191,512 units, down from 202,375 in March. The SAAR of urban starts dropped 4.6% to 174,810 units. Multiple urban starts declined 4% to 117,851 units, while single detached starts went down 5.8% to 56,959.

“While the trend for Canada remained stable in April, there were offsetting differences at the local level, notably in Vancouver and Montréal,” says Bob Dugan, CMHC Chief Economist. “Condo construction is slowing down in Montreal as builders are managing inventories by channelling demand to units that have been completed but remain unsold.”

Housing starts increased in the Prairies, British Columbia, and Atlantic Canada, but declined in Ontario and Quebec. Rural starts are estimated to have reached 16,702 units.

Housing starts in Toronto CMA

Focusing in on the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), CMHC announced that housing starts also held steady in this region. Housing Starts in Toronto CMA trended at 41,652 units, compared to 41,896 in March.

“April saw Toronto housing starts remain largely on trend,” says Dana Senagama, CMHC Principal Market Analyst for the GTA. “Home starts were buoyed by new apartments, some of which were purpose-built for rental. Low-rise home starts were also high, as record low inventories in the resale market continued to drive buyers to the new home market.”

The standalone monthly SAAR was 37,140 units, a pretty large drop from the 55,738 in March. The City of Toronto saw the most starts thanks to many apartment starts, and Markham and Brampton saw the second most due to a number of low-rise starts.