The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp reported May 8 that the seasonally adjusted annualized rate of housing starts fell to 181,814 in April from a downwardly revised 189,546 units in March.
Canada Housing Starts
In Canada, condo starts slipped 14.2 per cent to 107,216, said the CMHC. Single-detached starts rose 11.4 per cent to 58,229.
Urban multi-unit project starts were 107,216 units, a 14.2 per cent decline from March.
Quebec and the Prairie region showed the biggest declines in multi-unit starts while Ontario was down to a lesser degree and there were increases in the Atlantic region and British Columbia.
The number of urban single-detached starts across the country was up 11.4 per cent to 58,229 units while rural areas of Canada accounted for 16,369 units started in April.
Canada’s long housing boom has ended in several key markets, including Calgary and Edmonton, where a decline in oil prices has slowed demand, but construction and buyer demand has continued in Toronto and Vancouver, the two largest markets.
The report showed starts were higher in British Columbia, where Vancouver’s hot housing market continues to surge, and in the much smaller Atlantic market.
Groundbreaking slowed in the Prairies, where a drop in oil prices has sideswiped the resource-dependent economy, particularly in the energy heartland of Alberta.
Quebec starts also declined, while construction in Ontario was essentially flat.
“All told, not much to move markets, since housing starts continue on their broadly sideways trend since mid-2013,” CIBC World Markets economist Nick Exarhos said in a research note.