Toronto has the most housing starts in the GTA in February 2016

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) released its national housing starts figures for February 2016, announcing that starts have stayed steady from the beginning of the year.

The national housing starts trend measure for February was 198,880 units, compared to 199,107 in January. The trend is a six month moving average of seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR).

“The national housing starts trend held steady in February, despite some important regional variances,” says Bob Dugan, CMHC Chief Economist. “Housing starts are trending at a 4-year low in the Prairies where low oil prices have weakened consumer confidence. At the same time, starts are trending at an 8-year high in British Columbia, as new and resale home inventories remain low”.

The Prairies was the only region to see a decrease in housing starts last month, while British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada experienced increases. The monthly SAAR of rural starts is estimated to be around 12,363 units.

The standalone monthly SAAR last month was 212,594 units, compared to 165,071 in January. The SAAR of urban starts went up 30.9% to 200,231 unit. Multiple urban starts jumped by 46% to 138,774 units, while single-detached starts only increased by 6.1% to 61,457.

Housing starts in the GTA

The Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) trended at 42,352 units in February 2016, according to CMHC, which is slightly lower than January’s 45,296 starts.

“While housing starts in Toronto trended lower in February, low listings of single-detached homes in the resale market have resulted in some demand being carried over to the new home market as indicated by higher trending single-detached home starts, ” says Dana Senagama, CMHC Principal Market Analyst for the GTA.  

The standalone monthly SAAR was 47,347 units, a large increase from January’s 26,120 starts. This big jump is due to a great deal of apartment starts. In fact, with 2,101 apartment units breaking ground last month, the City of Toronto had the most housing starts in the GTA.

Brampton came in second with mostly single-detached starts, and Mississauga came in third, where there were also many apartment starts.

All information courtesy CMHC.