Investment in Canadian Building Construction Increases 1.9% in December

On Thursday, Statistics Canada (StatCan) reported that investment in building construction rose 1.9%, or $408.1 million (CAD), to $21.8 billion in December, with gains recorded across all components.

On a constant dollar basis (2017=100), investment in building construction increased 1.5% from the previous month to $13.0 billion and was up 1.6% year-over-year.

Residential

Investment in residential building construction was up 2.2%, or $323.9 million, to $15.1 billion in December.

Single-family home investment edged up 0.8%, or $60.7 million, to $7.3 billion, marking its fifth consecutive monthly increase.

Investment in multi-unit construction rose 3.5%, or $263.2 million, to $7.7 billion, rebounding from two significant and consecutive monthly declines.

Nonresidential

Investment in nonresidential construction increased 1.3%, or $84.1 million, to $6.7 billion in December. Monthly increases were recorded in eight provinces and one territory.

The industrial component was up 1.8%, or $26.2 million, to $1.5 billion. The commercial construction investment edged up 0.6%, or $20.2 million, to $3.3 billion. The institutional construction investment rose 2.0%, or $37.7 million, to $1.9 billion.

Q4 Summary

Investment in building construction grew 1.0%, or $654.1 million, to $64.5 billion in 2024Q4, marking the sixth consecutive quarterly increase.

Investment in the residential sector edged up 0.2% to $44.8 billion. Growth in single-family home investment increased $1.3 billion to $21.7 billion but was almost entirely offset by declines in the multi-unit component—down $1.2 billion to $23.1 billion.

The quarterly increase in investment in building construction was primarily led by the nonresidential sector, up $580.7 million to $19.8 billion. That accounted for 88.9% of the total growth in the quarter.