A decline was always on the cards…
The six-month trend in housing starts stood at 286,620 units in July, falling from the 293,085 units in June, according to new figures from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).
This decline is indicative of “the recent moderation in total starts from the highs recorded earlier this year,” said Bob Dugan, chief economist of the CMHC.
“In July, higher single-detached [seasonally adjusted annual rates] starts failed to offset a decrease in multi-family SAAR starts in Canada’s urban areas, leading to a decline in overall SAAR starts for the month,” Dugan said. “However, the level of activity remains elevated by historical standards, both on a trend and monthly SAAR basis.”
Still, this outsized activity was limited to just a handful of markets, making this growth fundamentally uneven.
“Among the markets of Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, only Toronto registered growth in total SAAR starts in July, driven once again by strong growth in the multi-family segment,” Dugan said.
Read more: How residential construction has fared through the pandemic
The standalone monthly SAAR of housing starts across all Canadian areas was 272,176 units in July, shrinking by 3.2% from 281,200 units in June.
The SAAR of urban starts ticked down by 0.65% in July to 249,001 units. Multiple urban starts dropped by 3.1% to 184,759 units, while single-detached urban starts rose by 7.1% to 64,242 units.
CMHC estimated the SAAR of rural starts to have reached 23,175 units in July.
