Housing starts in Canada trended downwards to 224,419 units annually in September, according to new data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC).
The seasonally adjusted annual rate of urban starts decreased by 3% to 203,731 units in September. Urban singles starts decreased by 1.4% to 67,643 units, while multiple urban starts decreased by 3.9% to 136,088 units.
September's seasonally adjusted annual rate of urban starts increased by 17.6% in the Prairies and by 20.3% in Atlantic Canada. Urban starts remained relatively unchanged in Quebec while decreasing by 3.7% in British Columbia and 18.2% in Ontario.
‘Housing starts in September were largely in line with the latest trend figure,’ says Mathieu Laberge, deputy chief economist at the CMHC. ‘The monthly decrease posted in September was mostly due to a decrease in urban multiples starts. As expected, the number of multiples starts in Ontario, particularly in Toronto, reverted back to a level more in line with the average pace of activity over the last six months. Following a period of elevated housing starts activity due to strong volumes of multifamily unit pre-sales in 2010 and 2011, the pace of housing starts is expected to moderate.’