Canadian Housing Starts Unchanged in January

Ottawa, February 10, 2020

The trend in housing starts was 210,915 units in January 2020, compared to 212,212 units in December 2019, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). This trend measure is a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) of housing starts.

“The national trend in housing starts essentially held steady in January.” said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. “Lower-trending starts in Vancouver were partly offset by stronger activity in Montréal, while the trend in Toronto was stable at the start of the year.”

CMHC uses the trend measure as a complement to the monthly SAAR of housing starts to account for considerable swings in monthly estimates and obtain a more complete picture of Canada’s housing market. In some situations, analyzing only SAAR data can be misleading, as they are largely driven by the multi-unit segment of the market which can vary significantly from one month to the next.

The standalone monthly SAAR of housing starts for all areas in Canada was 213,224 units in January, an increase of 8.8% from 195,892 units in December. The SAAR of urban starts increased by 9.8% in January to 202,407 units. Multiple urban starts increased by 13.6% to 155,140 units in January while single-detached urban starts decreased by 0.9% to 47,267 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 10,817 units.

Preliminary Housing Starts data are also available in English and French through our website and through CMHC’s Housing Market Information Portal. Our analysts are also available to provide further insight into their respective markets.

As Canada’s authority on housing, CMHC contributes to the stability of the housing market and financial system, provides support for Canadians in housing need, and offers objective housing research and information to Canadian governments, consumers and the housing industry.

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Information on this release:

Angelina Ritacco
Media Relations, CMHC
416-218-3320
aritacco@cmhc-schl.gc.ca

Table 1: Preliminary Housing Start Data in Centres 10,000 Population and Over
	Single-Detached			All Others			Total
	January 2019	January 2020	%	January 2019	January 2020	%	January 2019	January 2020	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.	19	15	-21	2	11	450	21	26	24
P.E.I.	4	7	75	45	19	-58	49	26	-47
N.S.	78	96	23	152	58	-62	230	154	-33
N.B.	13	16	23	39	39	-	52	55	6
Atlantic	114	134	18	238	127	-47	352	261	-26
Qc	124	197	59	1,613	2,908	80	1,737	3,105	79
Ont.	854	1,026	20	4,072	3,815	-6	4,926	4,841	-2
Man.	135	142	5	338	376	11	473	518	10
Sask.	64	59	-8	72	182	153	136	241	77
Alta.	594	624	5	1,080	847	-22	1,674	1,471	-12
Prairies	793	825	4	1,490	1,405	-6	2,283	2,230	-2
B.C.	468	340	-27	2,691	1,541	-43	3,159	1,881	-40
Canada (10,000+)	2,353	2,522	7	10,104	9,796	-3	12,457	12,318	-1
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	25	12	-52	32	232	##	57	244	328
Barrie	13	12	-8	0	4	##	13	16	23
Belleville	15	29	93	0	115	##	15	144	##
Brantford	5	13	160	0	10	##	5	23	360
Calgary	269	259	-4	431	383	-11	700	642	-8
Edmonton	211	276	31	579	391	-32	790	667	-16
Greater Sudbury	1	0	-100	2	0	-100	3	0	-100
Guelph	11	8	-27	19	43	126	30	51	70
Halifax	57	63	11	141	27	-81	198	90	-55
Hamilton	30	34	13	302	101	-67	332	135	-59
Kelowna	49	15	-69	268	106	-60	317	121	-62
Kingston	25	7	-72	147	6	-96	172	13	-92
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	107	42	-61	80	339	324	187	381	104
Lethbridge	40	15	-63	7	5	-29	47	20	-57
London	43	81	88	226	255	13	269	336	25
Moncton	0	2	##	2	10	400	2	12	##
Montréal	64	91	42	1,358	2,016	48	1,422	2,107	48
Oshawa	22	19	-14	19	26	37	41	45	10
Ottawa-Gatineau	78	120	54	171	491	187	249	611	145
Gatineau	2	17	##	62	223	260	64	240	275
Ottawa	76	103	36	109	268	146	185	371	101
Peterborough	6	4	-33	0	0	-	6	4	-33
Québec	13	30	131	94	308	228	107	338	216
Regina	18	27	50	35	41	17	53	68	28
Saguenay	2	6	200	0	63	##	2	69	##
St. Catharines-Niagara	62	54	-13	54	93	72	116	147	27
Saint John	5	4	-20	37	26	-30	42	30	-29
St. John's	17	13	-24	2	10	400	19	23	21
Saskatoon	44	29	-34	33	138	318	77	167	117
Sherbrooke	3	11	267	0	182	##	3	193	##
Thunder Bay	0	1	##	0	0	-	0	1	##
Toronto	243	406	67	2,942	2,112	-28	3,185	2,518	-21
Trois-Rivières	1	6	##	18	12	-33	19	18	-5
Vancouver	200	159	-21	1,867	865	-54	2,067	1,024	-50
Victoria	32	33	3	202	13	-94	234	46	-80
Windsor	24	8	-67	12	5	-58	36	13	-64
Winnipeg	113	126	12	294	357	21	407	483	19
Total	1,848	2,015	9	9,374	8,785	-6	11,222	10,800	-4

Data based on 2016 Census Definitions.
Source: Market Analysis Centre, CMHC
## not calculable / extreme value

Table 2: Preliminary Housing Start Data — Seasonally Adjusted at Annual Rates (SAAR)
	Single-Detached			All Others			Total
	December 2019	January 2020	%	December 2019	January 2020	%	December 2019	January 2020	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.	429	354	-17	296	139	-53	725	493	-32
P.E.I.	249	200	-20	1,056	228	-78	1,305	428	-67
N.S.	1,667	1,477	-11	4,291	776	-82	5,958	2,253	-62
N.B.	618	596	-4	668	1,132	69	1,286	1,728	34
Qc	6,482	6,621	2	25,228	66,280	163	31,710	72,901	130
Ont.	18,460	18,662	1	37,975	50,228	32	56,435	68,890	22
Man.	2,048	2,159	5	2,712	4,512	66	4,760	6,671	40
Sask.	780	1,073	38	1,560	2,184	40	2,340	3,257	39
Alta.	10,555	10,319	-2	27,661	10,962	-60	38,216	21,281	-44
B.C.	6,412	5,806	-9	35,158	18,699	-47	41,570	24,505	-41
Canada (10,000+)	47,700	47,267	-1	136,605	155,140	14	184,305	202,407	10
Canada (All Areas)	56,302	55,146	-2	139,591	158,077	13	195,892	213,224	9
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	344	216	-37	2,160	2,784	29	2,504	3,000	20
Barrie	325	366	13	0	48	##	325	414	27
Belleville	510	711	39	384	1,380	259	894	2,091	134
Brantford	416	452	9	264	120	-55	680	572	-16
Calgary	4,527	3,911	-14	21,336	4,596	-78	25,863	8,507	-67
Edmonton	4,224	4,760	13	4,848	4,692	-3	9,072	9,452	4
Greater Sudbury	144	7	-95	24	0	-100	168	7	-96
Guelph	140	146	4	108	516	378	248	662	167
Halifax	792	955	21	3,528	324	-91	4,320	1,279	-70
Hamilton	440	525	19	396	1,212	206	836	1,737	108
Kelowna	356	338	-5	552	1,272	130	908	1,610	77
Kingston	464	213	-54	240	72	-70	704	285	-60
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	832	649	-22	6,276	4,068	-35	7,108	4,717	-34
Lethbridge	245	259	6	96	60	-38	341	319	-6
London	1,571	2,039	30	1,080	3,060	183	2,651	5,099	92
Moncton	242	109	-55	276	120	-57	518	229	-56
Montréal	2,301	3,029	32	16,537	25,853	56	18,838	28,882	53
Oshawa	708	541	-24	2,604	312	-88	3,312	853	-74
Ottawa-Gatineau	2,768	2,986	8	7,128	5,892	-17	9,896	8,878	-10
Gatineau	366	397	8	2,940	2,676	-9	3,306	3,073	-7
Ottawa	2,402	2,589	8	4,188	3,216	-23	6,590	5,805	-12
Peterborough	120	104	-13	0	0	-	120	104	-13
Québec	855	921	8	2,232	3,696	66	3,087	4,617	50
Regina	110	364	231	240	492	105	350	856	145
Saguenay	262	326	24	48	756	##	310	1,082	249
St. Catharines-Niagara	1,063	977	-8	1,920	1,116	-42	2,983	2,093	-30
Saint John	44	107	143	0	312	##	44	419	##
St. John's	299	277	-7	228	120	-47	527	397	-25
Saskatoon	549	591	8	1,224	1,656	35	1,773	2,247	27
Sherbrooke	532	500	-6	1,956	2,184	12	2,488	2,684	8
Thunder Bay	133	92	-31	0	0	-	133	92	-31
Toronto	4,204	6,578	56	16,884	25,344	50	21,088	31,922	51
Trois-Rivières	152	216	42	432	144	-67	584	360	-38
Vancouver	2,854	2,547	-11	24,840	10,380	-58	27,694	12,927	-53
Victoria	669	542	-19	2,580	156	-94	3,249	698	-79
Windsor	807	207	-74	432	60	-86	1,239	267	-78
Winnipeg	1,634	1,854	13	2,172	4,284	97	3,806	6,138	61