Canadian Housing Starts Increased in July

Ottawa, August 11, 2020

The trend in housing starts was 204,376 units in July 2020, up from 199,778 units in June 2020, 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 increased for a second month in July,” said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. “Higher multi-family starts in major urban areas, including Toronto, Vancouver and oil-producing centres in the Prairies drove the national increase. Following declines in previous months from COVID-19 measures, higher activity in June and July leaves the trend in housing starts in line with the long-run average level of housing starts. We expect national starts to trend lower in the near term as a result of the negative impact of COVID-19 on economic and housing indicators.”

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 245,604 units in July, an increase of 15.8% from 212,095 units in June. The SAAR of urban starts increased by 17.4% in July to 231,995 units. Multiple urban starts increased by 18.8% to 184,431 units in July while single-detached urban starts increased by 12.3% to 47,564 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 13,609 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.

Like many other government organizations, businesses and individuals, we are closely following developments around COVID-19. The monthly release of our Preliminary Housing Starts data will continue as planned. CMHC will report any impact on our ability to collect housing data.

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
	July 2019	July 2020	%	July 2019	July 2020	%	July 2019	July 2020	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.	40	56	40	14	13	-7	54	69	28
P.E.I.	27	27	-	124	14	-89	151	41	-73
N.S.	141	152	8	176	492	180	317	644	103
N.B.	105	86	-18	164	528	222	269	614	128
Atlantic	313	321	3	478	1,047	119	791	1,368	73
Qc	615	753	22	3,232	3,974	23	3,847	4,727	23
Ont.	1,892	2,132	13	4,254	5,258	24	6,146	7,390	20
Man.	202	184	-9	324	363	12	526	547	4
Sask.	76	127	67	39	570	##	115	697	##
Alta.	828	690	-17	1,643	1,273	-23	2,471	1,963	-21
Prairies	1,106	1,001	-9	2,006	2,206	10	3,112	3,207	3
B.C.	682	642	-6	3,495	2,777	-21	4,177	3,419	-18
Canada (10,000+)	4,608	4,849	5	13,465	15,262	13	18,073	20,111	11
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	28	23	-18	218	16	-93	246	39	-84
Barrie	43	32	-26	32	16	-50	75	48	-36
Belleville	49	56	14	8	8	-	57	64	12
Brantford	74	54	-27	14	43	207	88	97	10
Calgary	283	241	-15	408	496	22	691	737	7
Edmonton	373	333	-11	988	607	-39	1,361	940	-31
Greater Sudbury	26	17	-35	18	12	-33	44	29	-34
Guelph	25	19	-24	53	0	-100	78	19	-76
Halifax	81	101	25	148	473	220	229	574	151
Hamilton	39	34	-13	85	547	##	124	581	369
Kelowna	48	34	-29	74	256	246	122	290	138
Kingston	28	26	-7	61	82	34	89	108	21
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	68	93	37	347	79	-77	415	172	-59
Lethbridge	36	23	-36	107	78	-27	143	101	-29
London	151	222	47	124	109	-12	275	331	20
Moncton	31	26	-16	89	370	316	120	396	230
Montréal	247	259	5	1,867	2,776	49	2,114	3,035	44
Oshawa	99	56	-43	42	86	105	141	142	1
Ottawa-Gatineau	320	386	21	579	592	2	899	978	9
Gatineau	44	63	43	256	175	-32	300	238	-21
Ottawa	276	323	17	323	417	29	599	740	24
Peterborough	17	26	53	95	2	-98	112	28	-75
Québec	70	96	37	679	476	-30	749	572	-24
Regina	19	22	16	5	56	##	24	78	225
Saguenay	15	38	153	10	46	360	25	84	236
St. Catharines-Niagara	72	122	69	53	155	192	125	277	122
Saint John	26	19	-27	0	78	##	26	97	273
St. John's	25	44	76	6	10	67	31	54	74
Saskatoon	51	95	86	16	498	##	67	593	##
Sherbrooke	26	39	50	55	62	13	81	101	25
Thunder Bay	9	13	44	9	6	-33	18	19	6
Toronto	456	652	43	2,315	3,469	50	2,771	4,121	49
Trois-Rivières	18	21	17	32	56	75	50	77	54
Vancouver	345	315	-9	2,353	1,764	-25	2,698	2,079	-23
Victoria	46	80	74	261	283	8	307	363	18
Windsor	86	41	-52	335	45	-87	421	86	-80
Winnipeg	169	141	-17	246	341	39	415	482	16
Total	3,499	3,799	9	11,732	13,993	19	15,231	17,792	17

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
	June 2020	July 2020	%	June 2020	July 2020	%	June 2020	July 2020	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.	260	486	87	115	147	28	375	633	69
P.E.I.	216	218	1	1,608	168	-90	1,824	386	-79
N.S.	1,180	1,441	22	1,043	5,876	463	2,223	7,317	229
N.B.	587	530	-10	1,736	6,117	252	2,323	6,647	186
Qc	6,630	7,301	10	48,068	50,763	6	54,698	58,064	6
Ont.	17,500	21,252	21	59,013	61,745	5	76,513	82,997	8
Man.	1,690	1,834	9	5,340	4,356	-18	7,030	6,190	-12
Sask.	800	1,012	27	1,512	6,840	352	2,312	7,852	240
Alta.	7,068	6,832	-3	7,154	15,099	111	14,222	21,931	54
B.C.	6,418	6,658	4	29,636	33,320	12	36,054	39,978	11
Canada (10,000+)	42,349	47,564	12	155,225	184,431	19	197,574	231,995	17
Canada (All Areas)	51,634	57,429	11	160,462	188,176	17	212,095	245,604	16
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	286	287	0	300	192	-36	586	479	-18
Barrie	411	199	-52	2,472	192	-92	2,883	391	-86
Belleville	268	514	92	120	96	-20	388	610	57
Brantford	425	419	-1	144	516	258	569	935	64
Calgary	2,328	2,841	22	2,484	5,952	140	4,812	8,793	83
Edmonton	3,471	3,432	-1	3,468	7,284	110	6,939	10,716	54
Greater Sudbury	126	99	-21	48	144	200	174	243	40
Guelph	94	237	152	144	0	-100	238	237	0
Halifax	744	1,019	37	684	5,676	##	1,428	6,695	369
Hamilton	329	336	2	2,376	6,564	176	2,705	6,900	155
Kelowna	226	385	70	2,628	3,072	17	2,854	3,457	21
Kingston	202	230	14	576	984	71	778	1,214	56
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	709	1,266	79	6,672	948	-86	7,381	2,214	-70
Lethbridge	186	192	3	840	936	11	1,026	1,128	10
London	1,429	1,918	34	1,212	1,308	8	2,641	3,226	22
Moncton	194	158	-19	1,128	4,440	294	1,322	4,598	248
Montréal	2,310	2,554	11	37,122	33,194	-11	39,432	35,748	-9
Oshawa	412	539	31	1,212	1,032	-15	1,624	1,571	-3
Ottawa-Gatineau	2,882	3,510	22	7,980	7,104	-11	10,862	10,614	-2
Gatineau	338	558	65	3,312	2,100	-37	3,650	2,658	-27
Ottawa	2,544	2,952	16	4,668	5,004	7	7,212	7,956	10
Peterborough	120	179	49	0	24	##	120	203	69
Québec	805	1,016	26	10,536	5,712	-46	11,341	6,728	-41
Regina	116	236	103	156	672	331	272	908	234
Saguenay	212	302	42	276	552	100	488	854	75
St. Catharines-Niagara	1,440	1,201	-17	2,988	1,860	-38	4,428	3,061	-31
Saint John	122	144	18	348	936	169	470	1,080	130
St. John's	199	399	101	108	120	11	307	519	69
Saskatoon	582	800	37	1,344	5,976	345	1,926	6,776	252
Sherbrooke	382	578	51	3,744	744	-80	4,126	1,322	-68
Thunder Bay	89	83	-7	264	72	-73	353	155	-56
Toronto	5,970	6,838	15	33,816	41,628	23	39,786	48,466	22
Trois-Rivières	179	232	30	816	672	-18	995	904	-9
Vancouver	3,355	3,227	-4	20,196	21,168	5	23,551	24,395	4
Victoria	748	765	2	1,608	3,396	111	2,356	4,161	77
Windsor	616	421	-32	1,212	540	-55	1,828	961	-47
Winnipeg	1,344	1,436	7	5,028	4,092	-19	6,372	5,528	-13