Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Releases 2023 New Home Construction Recap
A 2023 recap of new home construction trends in Canada
On Wednesday, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) released its 2023 Housing Supply Report.
According to CMHC, new home construction in Canada’s 6 largest census metropolitan areas (CMAs)—Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montréal—all remained high in 2023. These CMAs recorded a total of 137,915 housing starts in 2023. This represents a marginal 0.5% decrease compared to 2022 but is aligned with annual average of approximately 140,000 units over the past 3 years.
While the total number of housing starts remained stable, apartment starts surged by 7%, reaching a historic high of 98,774 units. However, single-detached starts experienced a substantial 20% drop.
Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary saw an increase in total starts, driven by record-high apartment construction, indicating high demand in this sector.
On the other hand, Montréal saw its lowest apartment construction levels in 8 years. Montréal tends to build small, low-rise apartment structures. Because of their smaller size, these projects take less time to plan and build, CMHC said. The decline in apartment starts in Montréal was, therefore, reflective of the current, more challenging context of higher financing and construction costs.
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