Canadian housing starts trended lower in September

Ottawa, October 18, 2021

The trend in housing starts was 271,068 units in September 2021, down from 284,757 units in August 2021, 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 six-month trend in housing starts declined from August to September, with total starts continuing to pull back from their earlier 2021 levels,” said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. “Single-detached and multi-family SAAR starts were both lower in Canada’s urban areas in September, which led to a decline in overall SAAR starts for the month. On a trend and monthly SAAR basis, however, the level of housing starts activity in Canada remains high in historical terms. Among Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, Vancouver was the only market not to register growth in total SAAR starts in September, due to a decline in the multi-family segment.”

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 the multi-unit segment largely drives the market and can vary significantly from one month to the next.

The standalone monthly SAAR of housing starts for all areas in Canada was 251,151 units in September, a decrease of 4.4% from 262,754 units in August. The SAAR of urban starts decreased by 4.5% in September to 223,055 units. Multiple urban starts decreased by 4% to 165,861 units in September, while single-detached urban starts decreased by 5.9% to 57,194 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 28,096 units.

Monthly Housing Starts and Other Construction Data are accessible in English and French on our website and the CMHC Housing Market Information Portal. Housing starts data is available on the eleventh business day each month. We will release the October data on November 16 at 8:15 AM ET.

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:

Media Relations, CMHC
media@cmhc-schl.gc.ca

Table 1: Housing Start Data in Centres 10,000 Population and Over
	Single-Detached			All Others			Total
	Sept. 2020	Sept. 2021	%	Sept. 2020	Sept. 2021	%	Sept. 2020	Sept. 2021	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.	43	55	28	6	14	133	49	69	41
P.E.I.	27	28	4	21	7	-67	48	35	-27
N.S.	187	272	45	381	136	-64	568	408	-28
N.B.	130	106	-18	82	100	22	212	206	-3
Atlantic	387	461	19	490	257	-48	877	718	-18
Qc	859	765	-11	4,122	4,595	11	4,981	5,360	8
Ont.	2,053	2,090	2	5,046	5,926	17	7,099	8,016	13
Man.	178	197	11	107	522	388	285	719	152
Sask.	124	99	-20	26	446	##	150	545	263
Alta.	781	1,125	44	1,384	1,027	-26	2,165	2,152	-1
Prairies	1,083	1,421	31	1,517	1,995	32	2,600	3,416	31
B.C.	607	715	18	2,005	1,977	-1	2,612	2,692	3
Canada (10,000+)	4,989	5,452	9	13,180	14,750	12	18,169	20,202	11
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford–Mission	43	36	-16	53	94	77	96	130	35
Barrie	63	100	59	6	109	##	69	209	203
Belleville	46	29	-37	12	7	-42	58	36	-38
Brantford	50	10	-80	51	0	-100	101	10	-90
Calgary	310	484	56	725	542	-25	1,035	1,026	-1
Edmonton	333	470	41	535	433	-19	868	903	4
Greater Sudbury	14	25	79	8	155	##	22	180	##
Guelph	15	16	7	4	0	-100	19	16	-16
Halifax	128	172	34	348	101	-71	476	273	-43
Hamilton	8	37	363	218	43	-80	226	80	-65
Kelowna	38	70	84	49	128	161	87	198	128
Kingston	37	25	-32	187	6	-97	224	31	-86
Kitchener – Cambridge – Waterloo	87	62	-29	565	168	-70	652	230	-65
Lethbridge	34	18	-47	11	9	-18	45	27	-40
London	172	195	13	217	238	10	389	433	11
Moncton	41	39	-5	30	27	-10	71	66	-7
Montréal	318	261	-18	2,510	2,652	6	2,828	2,913	3
Oshawa	100	111	11	219	166	-24	319	277	-13
Ottawa – Gatineau	370	402	9	1,170	998	-15	1,540	1,400	-9
Gatineau	124	88	-29	301	524	74	425	612	44
Ottawa	246	314	28	869	474	-45	1,115	788	-29
Peterborough	8	18	125	6	0	-100	14	18	29
Québec	89	72	-19	661	695	5	750	767	2
Regina	38	29	-24	11	51	364	49	80	63
Saguenay	15	4	-73	16	16	-	31	20	-35
St. Catharines – Niagara	59	143	142	78	162	108	137	305	123
Saint John	36	32	-11	34	48	41	70	80	14
St. John's	32	46	44	4	10	150	36	56	56
Saskatoon	78	59	-24	9	392	##	87	451	418
Sherbrooke	46	42	-9	160	227	42	206	269	31
Thunder Bay	13	17	31	2	0	-100	15	17	13
Toronto	654	494	-24	2,137	4,118	93	2,791	4,612	65
Trois-Rivières	17	30	76	30	120	300	47	150	219
Vancouver	257	289	12	1,559	925	-41	1,816	1,214	-33
Victoria	55	60	9	138	356	158	193	416	116
Windsor	77	33	-57	133	32	-76	210	65	-69
Winnipeg	142	163	15	73	499	##	215	662	208
Total	3,823	4,093	7	11,969	13,527	13	15,792	17,620	12

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

Table 2: Housing Start Data — Seasonally Adjusted at Annual Rates (SAAR)
	Single-Detached			All Others			Total
	Aug. 2021	Sept. 2021	%	Aug. 2021	Sept. 2021	%	Aug. 2021	Sept. 2021	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.	509	480	-6	40	152	280	549	632	15
P.E.I.	325	274	-16	444	84	-81	769	358	-53
N.S.	1,222	2,336	91	563	1,485	164	1,785	3,821	114
N.B.	905	972	7	2,429	1,122	-54	3,334	2,094	-37
Qc	7,407	6,720	-9	39,621	46,808	18	47,028	53,528	14
Ont.	25,714	22,526	-12	73,976	68,507	-7	99,690	91,033	-9
Man.	2,839	2,381	-16	3,636	6,264	72	6,475	8,645	34
Sask.	1,483	1,067	-28	408	5,352	##	1,891	6,419	239
Alta.	13,180	12,577	-5	16,565	12,416	-25	29,745	24,993	-16
B.C.	7,170	7,861	10	35,066	23,671	-32	42,236	31,532	-25
Canada (10,000+)	60,754	57,194	-6	172,748	165,861	-4	233,502	223,055	-4
Canada (All Areas)	80,363	76,707	-5	182,394	174,444	-4	262,754	251,151	-4
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford–Mission	258	343	33	312	1,128	262	570	1,471	158
Barrie	592	1,009	70	2,976	1,308	-56	3,568	2,317	-35
Belleville	423	289	-32	600	84	-86	1,023	373	-64
Brantford	486	110	-77	2,352	0	-100	2,838	110	-96
Calgary	5,770	5,133	-11	7,032	6,504	-8	12,802	11,637	-9
Edmonton	5,516	5,491	0	9,060	5,196	-43	14,576	10,687	-27
Greater Sudbury	49	166	239	24	1,860	##	73	2,026	##
Guelph	180	206	14	144	0	-100	324	206	-36
Halifax	300	1,415	372	132	1,212	##	432	2,627	##
Hamilton	575	435	-24	7,656	516	-93	8,231	951	-88
Kelowna	979	953	-3	4,428	1,536	-65	5,407	2,489	-54
Kingston	451	250	-45	168	72	-57	619	322	-48
Kitchener – Cambridge – Waterloo	953	689	-28	4,608	2,016	-56	5,561	2,705	-51
Lethbridge	288	178	-38	252	108	-57	540	286	-47
London	2,033	2,096	3	2,508	2,856	14	4,541	4,952	9
Moncton	295	316	7	2,148	324	-85	2,443	640	-74
Montréal	2,385	2,475	4	24,526	31,584	29	26,911	34,059	27
Oshawa	1,568	1,173	-25	1,752	1,992	14	3,320	3,165	-5
Ottawa – Gatineau	2,900	3,702	28	7,776	11,976	54	10,676	15,678	47
Gatineau	324	565	74	408	6,288	##	732	6,853	##
Ottawa	2,576	3,137	22	7,368	5,688	-23	9,944	8,825	-11
Peterborough	406	306	-25	1,896	0	-100	2,302	306	-87
Québec	583	760	30	1,620	8,340	415	2,203	9,100	313
Regina	485	371	-24	108	612	467	593	983	66
Saguenay	420	55	-87	228	192	-16	648	247	-62
St. Catharines – Niagara	1,463	1,966	34	756	1,944	157	2,219	3,910	76
Saint John	268	278	4	24	576	##	292	854	192
St. John's	408	425	4	36	120	233	444	545	23
Saskatoon	925	681	-26	264	4,704	##	1,189	5,385	353
Sherbrooke	572	340	-41	1,320	2,724	106	1,892	3,064	62
Thunder Bay	67	102	52	0	0	-	67	102	52
Toronto	7,389	5,875	-20	39,036	49,416	27	46,425	55,291	19
Trois-Rivières	371	256	-31	72	1,440	##	443	1,696	283
Vancouver	2,594	3,009	16	19,800	11,100	-44	22,394	14,109	-37
Victoria	802	703	-12	6,156	4,272	-31	6,958	4,975	-28
Windsor	596	337	-43	912	384	-58	1,508	721	-52
Winnipeg	2,410	1,986	-18	3,276	5,988	83	5,686	7,974	40