Toronto Sees the Most Condo Starts in the CMA
By Lucas on May 08, 2015
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) released its April 2015 report of national housing starts, announcing a slight increase compared to March 2015.
In April, Canada’s housing starts were trending at 179,299, compared to 179,114 the previous month. The trending figure is a six-month moving average of monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR). The figures are based on numbers that have been modified to remove seasonal variation. The figures are then multiplied by 12 to represent an annual average.
“Elevated levels of multi-unit starts during mid-2014 caused the trend to peak in September,” says Bob Dugan, Chief Economist at CMHC’s Market Analysis Centre. “Starts activity since then has trended down to current stable levels as builders have adjusted activity to manage inventories. This trend is in line with CMHC’s expectations for housing starts in 2015.”
The standalone SAAR for April was 181,814 units, down from 189,546 in March. Overall, the SAAR of urban starts were down 6.6% to 165,445 units. Multi-urban starts decreased 14.2% to 107,216, and single-detached starts went up 11.4% to 58,229.
The Atlantic area and British Columbia were the only regions to see an increase in starts in April, while Ontario stayed steady, and the Prairies and Quebec saw a decrease. Rural starts is estimated to be trending around 16,369.
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Housing starts for the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending at 32,538 in April, an increase compared to 30,303 in March. The standalone SAAR was 38,855, a significant decrease from March’s 46,070, which is due to a lack of apartment starts.
“The upward trend in housing starts was driven by all housing types,” says Dana Senagama, CMHC’s Principal of Market Analysis for the GTA. “Strong high-rise completions so far this year have enabled builders to channel more resources towards breaking ground on new projects. Moreover, building has begun on a high number of low-rise homes sold prior to construction in the second half of 2014 – particularly single detached and townhomes – and these can now be counted as housing starts.”
The City of Toronto had the highest amount of starts, while Markham was in second - both showing a high amount of condominium starts. The third highest was Brampton, which unsurprisingly had the largest amount of low-rise starts.
So, is Toronto still at risk of overbuilding? We’ll have to see how developers manage their inventories in the coming months!
