Canadian municipalities issued $7.5 billion worth of building permits in August, down 5.5 per cent from July, according to Statistics Canada Tuesday. This was the second consecutive monthly decrease. Despite these declines, the year-to-date value of building permits (January to August) is up 8.7 per cent compared with the same period in 2016, reflecting a $3.1 billion increase in multi-family dwellings.
Canada Building Permits
Total construction intentions for multi-family dwellings in Canada declined in August, down 6 per cent from July, according to Statistics Canada Tuesday. However, the sector has been on an upward trend since 2009.
This upward trend has gradually closed the gap between the value of multi-family dwellings and single-family dwellings. June 2017 was the first month where the value of multi-family dwelling permits for Canada surpassed the value of single-family dwelling permits. Overall, the multi-family component was $294.3 million higher than the single-family component in June, and $8.1 million higher in July.
Broken down provincially, in British Columbia, the value of permits for multi-family dwellings has outpaced single-family dwellings every year since 2012. So far this year, the multi-family component has exceeded the value of the single-family component by more than $1.6 billion.
In Quebec, the value for multi-family permits has led the residential sector every year since 2013. Thus far, in 2017, Quebec municipalities have issued $3.8 billion worth of multi-family permits, almost $1 billion more than the single-family component.
In contrast, the value of single-family permits in Ontario has led the residential component every year, and for year-to-date 2017, the single-family component has surpassed the multi-family component by $2.1 billion.