The value of investment in Canada’s new residential building construction rose 4.3 per cent year over year to $4.7 billion in October, following a 4.8 per cent gain the previous month, said Statistics Canada December 22.
The increase at the national level was mainly attributable to higher construction spending on apartment and apartment-condominium buildings, which offset declines in investment related to single-family and semi-detached dwelling construction.
Elsewhere, the US Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce announced Monday that construction spending during November 2015 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of US$1,122.5 billion, 0.4 per cent below the revised October estimate of US$1,127.0 billion. The November figure is 10.5 per cent above the November 2014 estimate of US$1,016.1 billion.
Canada and US Construction Spending
Canadian investment in apartment and apartment-condominium building construction rose 27.6 per cent to $1.8 billion in October compared with the same month in 2014, said StatsCan December 22. This was the sixth consecutive double-digit advance. Spending on row house construction increased 2.1 per cent from October 2014 to $438 million.
Investment in single-family dwelling construction declined for the fifth consecutive month year over year, down 6.9 per cent to $2.2 billion in October.
In the US, during the first 11 months of this year, construction spending amounted to US$1,011.9 bil- lion, 10.7 per cent above the US$913.9 billion for the same period in 2014, accoriding to the US Census Bureau Mon- day. Spending on private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of US$828.2 billion, 0.2 per cent below the revised October estimate of US$829.7 billion.
In November, the estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of public construction spending was US$294.3 billion, 1.0 per cent below the revised October estimate of US$297.3 billion.