Canadian residential building activity accelerated in May to the fastest in 10 months, driven by condominium construction.
Builders began work on an annualized 201,705 homes last month, up 10 per cent from April and the most since July, the Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp. said Monday Annualized multiple-unit construction in urban centers rose 17 per cent.
Housing Starts, Canada
Breaking down the housing starts report, multi-unit starts in urban areas accounted for 122,367 of the total for May, up 16.9 per cent from April, while construction of single-detached houses in urban areas was steady at a seasonally adjusted rate of 58,868 units. There were an estimated 16,470 housing starts in rural areas.
Separate data from Statistics Canada showed the value of building permits rose 11.6 per cent to $7.8 billion in April. The value of nonresidential permits soared 30.2 per cent, while residential permits rose 1.2 per cent.