Canadian housing starts continued to trend higher in June

Ottawa, July 16, 2021

The trend in housing starts was 293,567 units in June 2021, up from 284,837 units in May 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 remained elevated in June, despite recent moderation in single-detached starts from the highs recorded in the first quarter of 2021,” said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. “In June, lower single-detached SAAR starts offset a slight increase in multi-family SAAR starts in Canada’s urban areas, leading to a decline in overall SAAR starts for the month. However, the level of activity remains elevated by historical standards, both on a trend and monthly SAAR basis. The markets of Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal registered particularly strong growth in total SAAR starts in June, driven by 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 282,070 units in June, a decrease of 1.5% from 286,296 units in May. The SAAR of urban starts decreased by 1.8% in June to 251,190 units. Multiple urban starts increased by a slight 0.6% to 191,085 units in June while single-detached urban starts decreased by 8.5% to 60,105 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 30,880 units.

Monthly Housing Starts and Other Construction Data are accessible in English and French on our website and the CMHC Housing Market Information Portal. Our analysts are also available to provide further insight into their respective markets. Housing starts data is available on the eleventh business day each month. We will release the July 2021 data on August 17 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:

Audrey-Anne Coulombe
Media Relations, CMHC
613-748-2573
acoulomb@cmhc-schl.gc.ca

Table 1: Housing Start Data in Centres 10,000 Population and Over
	Single-Detached			All Others			Total
	June 2020	June 2021	%	June 2020	June 2021	%	June 2020	June 2021	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.	36	67	86	12	14	17	48	81	69
P.E.I.	28	33	18	134	69	-49	162	102	-37
N.S.	140	116	-17	85	65	-24	225	181	-20
N.B.	84	144	71	160	236	48	244	380	56
Atlantic	288	360	25	391	384	-2	679	744	10
Qc	797	1,076	35	5,086	5,354	5	5,883	6,430	9
Ont.	1,945	2,318	19	5,097	5,165	1	7,042	7,483	6
Man.	156	273	75	445	529	19	601	802	33
Sask.	83	152	83	126	148	17	209	300	44
Alta.	669	1,239	85	629	1,289	105	1,298	2,528	95
Prairies	908	1,664	83	1,200	1,966	64	2,108	3,630	72
B.C.	639	766	20	2,476	4,520	83	3,115	5,286	70
Canada (10,000+)	4,577	6,184	35	14,250	17,389	22	18,827	23,573	25
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	27	31	15	25	114	356	52	145	179
Barrie	50	55	10	206	42	-80	256	97	-62
Belleville	28	50	79	10	0	-100	38	50	32
Brantford	29	11	-62	12	6	-50	41	17	-59
Calgary	218	538	147	207	635	207	425	1,173	176
Edmonton	347	485	40	289	570	97	636	1,055	66
Greater Sudbury	17	17	-	4	23	475	21	40	90
Guelph	16	24	50	12	163	##	28	187	##
Halifax	95	4	-96	57	11	-81	152	15	-90
Hamilton	33	85	158	198	323	63	231	408	77
Kelowna	19	96	405	219	201	-8	238	297	25
Kingston	28	35	25	48	23	-52	76	58	-24
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	64	69	8	556	192	-65	620	261	-58
Lethbridge	17	37	118	70	5	-93	87	42	-52
London	134	161	20	101	712	##	235	873	271
Moncton	30	40	33	94	140	49	124	180	45
Montréal	266	301	13	3,094	3,023	-2	3,360	3,324	-1
Oshawa	56	147	163	101	285	182	157	432	175
Ottawa-Gatineau	297	443	49	665	318	-52	962	761	-21
Gatineau	21	129	##	276	22	-92	297	151	-49
Ottawa	276	314	14	389	296	-24	665	610	-8
Peterborough	15	24	60	0	0	-	15	24	60
Québec	102	121	19	878	1,333	52	980	1,454	48
Regina	12	49	308	13	38	192	25	87	248
Saguenay	32	66	106	23	20	-13	55	86	56
St. Catharines-Niagara	155	70	-55	249	88	-65	404	158	-61
Saint John	16	36	125	29	6	-79	45	42	-7
St. John's	28	54	93	9	12	33	37	66	78
Saskatoon	63	93	48	112	103	-8	175	196	12
Sherbrooke	70	61	-13	312	188	-40	382	249	-35
Thunder Bay	17	15	-12	22	0	-100	39	15	-62
Toronto	652	590	-10	2,818	2,540	-10	3,470	3,130	-10
Trois-Rivières	27	45	67	68	83	22	95	128	35
Vancouver	322	279	-13	1,683	3,512	109	2,005	3,791	89
Victoria	76	86	13	134	272	103	210	358	70
Windsor	80	80	-	101	91	-10	181	171	-6
Winnipeg	127	225	77	419	470	12	546	695	27
Total	3,565	4,523	27	12,838	15,542	21	16,403	20,065	22

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
	May 2021	June 2021	%	May 2021	June 2021	%	May 2021	June 2021	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.	619	550	-11	188	153	-19	807	703	-13
P.E.I.	536	288	-46	552	828	50	1,088	1,116	3
N.S.	1,254	1,071	-15	7,113	824	-88	8,367	1,895	-77
N.B.	1,391	1,041	-25	4,987	2,832	-43	6,378	3,873	-39
Qc	8,744	8,892	2	47,830	49,027	3	56,574	57,919	2
Ont.	27,515	22,182	-19	66,322	59,904	-10	93,837	82,086	-13
Man.	2,729	2,990	10	3,948	6,348	61	6,677	9,338	40
Sask.	1,962	1,756	-10	3,360	1,776	-47	5,322	3,532	-34
Alta.	13,208	13,559	3	20,925	15,200	-27	34,133	28,759	-16
B.C.	7,761	7,776	0	34,762	54,193	56	42,523	61,969	46
Canada (10,000+)	65,719	60,105	-9	189,987	191,085	1	255,706	251,190	-2
Canada (All Areas)	86,974	80,975	-7	199,323	201,094	1	286,296	282,070	-1
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	286	328	15	324	1,368	322	610	1,696	178
Barrie	623	586	-6	1,896	504	-73	2,519	1,090	-57
Belleville	452	479	6	180	0	-100	632	479	-24
Brantford	508	286	-44	684	72	-89	1,192	358	-70
Calgary	5,030	5,987	19	13,452	7,620	-43	18,482	13,607	-26
Edmonton	5,686	5,497	-3	6,624	6,840	3	12,310	12,337	0
Greater Sudbury	426	140	-67	216	276	28	642	416	-35
Guelph	107	163	52	108	1,956	##	215	2,119	##
Halifax	162	35	-78	6,648	132	-98	6,810	167	-98
Hamilton	334	1,129	238	3,684	3,876	5	4,018	5,005	25
Kelowna	601	768	28	492	2,412	390	1,093	3,180	191
Kingston	439	287	-35	180	276	53	619	563	-9
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	1,430	792	-45	5,088	2,304	-55	6,518	3,096	-53
Lethbridge	436	448	3	180	60	-67	616	508	-18
London	2,389	1,969	-18	3,900	8,544	119	6,289	10,513	67
Moncton	471	305	-35	3,156	1,680	-47	3,627	1,985	-45
Montréal	2,670	2,774	4	25,296	36,258	43	27,966	39,032	40
Oshawa	1,721	1,349	-22	7,872	3,420	-57	9,593	4,769	-50
Ottawa-Gatineau	4,366	5,052	16	15,720	3,816	-76	20,086	8,868	-56
Gatineau	541	1,904	252	5,016	264	-95	5,557	2,168	-61
Ottawa	3,825	3,148	-18	10,704	3,552	-67	14,529	6,700	-54
Peterborough	277	237	-14	0	0	-	277	237	-14
Québec	1,119	978	-13	10,368	15,996	54	11,487	16,974	48
Regina	632	502	-21	168	456	171	800	958	20
Saguenay	378	417	10	360	240	-33	738	657	-11
St. Catharines-Niagara	1,334	671	-50	2,064	1,056	-49	3,398	1,727	-49
Saint John	260	296	14	84	72	-14	344	368	7
St. John's	602	439	-27	168	144	-14	770	583	-24
Saskatoon	1,311	885	-32	3,108	1,236	-60	4,419	2,121	-52
Sherbrooke	642	360	-44	1,764	2,256	28	2,406	2,616	9
Thunder Bay	277	83	-70	84	0	-100	361	83	-77
Toronto	6,125	5,349	-13	24,684	30,480	23	30,809	35,829	16
Trois-Rivières	224	278	24	648	996	54	872	1,274	46
Vancouver	2,967	2,817	-5	27,600	42,144	53	30,567	44,961	47
Victoria	682	892	31	1,572	3,264	108	2,254	4,156	84
Windsor	703	633	-10	2,004	1,092	-46	2,707	1,725	-36
Winnipeg	2,073	2,408	16	3,672	5,640	54	5,745	8,048	40