Canadian Housing Industry Hits Third Consecutive Month of Record Setting Numbers

Led by a surge in residential building permits, Statistics Canada (StatsCan) is reporting that March 2021 marked the third consecutive month of recording setting numbers in the Canadian housing industry. Building permits rose 5.7% to $ 10.9 billion. The residential sector climbed 15.9%, clearing the $8.0 billion mark for the first time in March. Multi-family dwellings jumped 24.5% compared with February to an unprecedented $4.3 billion. The gain largely the result of permits being issued for residential towers in the cities of Toronto, Burlington, and Vaughan. Single-family homes also reached new heights, increasing 7.6% to $3.8 billion. The census metropolitan area of Oshawa was responsible for just over one-third of this growth. On the other hand, overall, non-residential construction declined -15.6% to $ 2.8 billion. For first three months of 2021, StatsCan is reporting that three consecutive monthly highs led to a record-setting first quarter, up 12.7% to $31.2 billion compared with the fourth quarter of 2020. With the residential sector posting their highest gain ever (+15.0%). Single-family homes (+22.8%) showed stronger quarterly growth than multi-family dwellings (+8.3%) and both reached new heights by breaking previous records set in Q4 of 2020.