Canadian Housing Starts Increase in April

The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) reported Monday (5-15-23) that the standalone monthly seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of total housing starts for all areas in Canada reached 261,559 units in April, an increase of 22% when compared to March’s 213,780 units.

The CMHC breaks down the April total as follows:

• The monthly SAAR for total urban starts in areas centers with a population of 10,000 or more increased 26%, with 241,285 units recorded.
• Multi-unit urban starts rose 33% to 201,621 units.
• Single-detached urbans starts decreased 2% to 39,964 units.
• The rural starts monthly SAAR was estimated at 19,974 units.

The trend in housing starts was 240,203 units in April, down 0.2% from 240,876 units in March. The trend measure is a six-month moving average of the monthly SAAR of total housing starts for all areas in Canada.

Adding additional background and his expert analysis to the report, CMHC’s Deputy Chief Economist Dr. Aled ab lorwerth said:

“While both the SAAR of housing starts and the trend have returned to levels observed before the pandemic, housing starts are expected to drop significantly in 2023, before seeing some recovery in 2024 and 2025, according to our latest forecast. The expected decline is due to constraints in new construction, including labor shortages, as well as higher construction and borrowing costs for housing developers.”