Investment in Canadian Building Construction Increases in November

On Wednesday, Statistics Canada (StatCan) reported that total investment in building construction rose 9.7% in November to CA$24.5 billion. Year-over-year, investment increased 16.6%.

StatCan said the monthly increase partly reflected October’s 14.9% rise in the total value of building permits, citing a lag between permit issuance and on-site construction activity.

On a constant dollar basis (2023=100), total investment rose 9.6% to $22.7 billion and was up 13.0% from a year earlier.

Residential Construction

Residential investment totaled $17.6 billion in November, rising $2.1 billion. Multifamily investment increased 20.1% to $10.2 billion, while single-family investment rose 5.0% to $7.4 billion.

The growth in multi-family investment was driven by Ontario, up $1.4 billion. Ontario (+$125.7 million) and British Columbia (+$110.8 million) led the single-family increase, supported by broad gains across six other provinces and the three territories.

Nonresidential Construction

Nonresidential investment increased $93.0 million to $6.9 billion. Commercial investment rose 2.7% to $3.5 billion, and institutional investment increased 0.4% to $2.1 billion. Industrial investment declined 0.5% to $1.3 billion, marking the 10th consecutive monthly decrease.