Canadian housing starts continued to trend lower in October

Ottawa, November 16, 2021

The trend in housing starts was 264,264 units in October, down from 270,661 units in September, 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 September to October, as the retreat in total starts from their earlier 2021 levels continued,” said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. “For SAAR housing starts in Canada’s urban areas, a slight increase in single-detached starts didn’t offset a larger decrease in multi-family starts in October and led to a decline in overall 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 to register growth in total SAAR starts in October, due to a rebound from the prior month 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 236,554 units in October, a decrease of 5.3% from 249,922 units in September. The SAAR of urban starts decreased by 3.7% in October to 214,797 units. Multiple urban starts decreased by 5.3% to 156,781 units in October, while single-detached urban starts increased by 1% to 58,016 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 21,757 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 November data on December 15 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
	Oct. 2020	Oct. 2021	%	Oct. 2020	Oct. 2021	%	Oct. 2020	Oct. 2021	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.	49	50	2	7	16	129	56	66	18
P.E.I.	35	31	-11	15	80	433	50	111	122
N.S.	131	351	168	66	426	##	197	777	294
N.B.	76	92	21	92	165	79	168	257	53
Atlantic	291	524	80	180	687	282	471	1,211	157
Qc	830	771	-7	3,635	4,264	17	4,465	5,035	13
Ont.	2,406	1,969	-18	4,831	4,689	-3	7,237	6,658	-8
Man.	222	197	-11	597	156	-74	819	353	-57
Sask.	138	134	-3	61	92	51	199	226	14
Alta.	848	1,105	30	1,812	1,814	0	2,660	2,919	10
Prairies	1,208	1,436	19	2,470	2,062	-17	3,678	3,498	-5
B.C.	578	609	5	1,867	2,079	11	2,445	2,688	10
Canada (10,000+)	5,313	5,309	0	12,983	13,781	6	18,296	19,090	4
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	31	23	-26	86	44	-49	117	67	-43
Barrie	52	113	117	264	119	-55	316	232	-27
Belleville	44	33	-25	64	14	-78	108	47	-56
Brantford	119	14	-88	15	5	-67	134	19	-86
Calgary	316	490	55	666	765	15	982	1,255	28
Edmonton	396	463	17	1,074	1,000	-7	1,470	1,463	0
Greater Sudbury	15	28	87	32	6	-81	47	34	-28
Guelph	26	6	-77	99	8	-92	125	14	-89
Halifax	72	264	267	35	408	##	107	672	##
Hamilton	57	33	-42	457	51	-89	514	84	-84
Kelowna	31	49	58	64	29	-55	95	78	-18
Kingston	35	30	-14	36	22	-39	71	52	-27
Kitchener – Cambridge – Waterloo	78	56	-28	173	555	221	251	611	143
Lethbridge	30	23	-23	7	22	214	37	45	22
London	183	155	-15	104	82	-21	287	237	-17
Moncton	39	28	-28	46	133	189	85	161	89
Montréal	300	241	-20	1,795	2,170	21	2,095	2,411	15
Oshawa	100	94	-6	233	270	16	333	364	9
Ottawa – Gatineau	363	350	-4	567	1,179	108	930	1,529	64
Gatineau	98	65	-34	84	253	201	182	318	75
Ottawa	265	285	8	483	926	92	748	1,211	62
Peterborough	52	10	-81	25	0	-100	77	10	-87
Québec	110	76	-31	669	586	-12	779	662	-15
Regina	19	61	221	24	24	-	43	85	98
Saguenay	21	22	5	37	20	-46	58	42	-28
St. Catharines – Niagara	114	64	-44	224	221	-1	338	285	-16
Saint John	18	26	44	0	8	##	18	34	89
St. John's	41	45	10	7	15	114	48	60	25
Saskatoon	110	64	-42	32	55	72	142	119	-16
Sherbrooke	37	37	-	438	226	-48	475	263	-45
Thunder Bay	20	11	-45	4	0	-100	24	11	-54
Toronto	714	539	-25	2,287	2,105	-8	3,001	2,644	-12
Trois-Rivières	16	27	69	64	64	-	80	91	14
Vancouver	263	262	0	1,011	1,512	50	1,274	1,774	39
Victoria	49	70	43	241	267	11	290	337	16
Windsor	83	32	-61	103	45	-56	186	77	-59
Winnipeg	186	154	-17	390	137	-65	576	291	-49
Total	4,140	3,993	-4	11,373	12,167	7	15,513	16,160	4

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
	Sept. 2021	Oct. 2021	%	Sept. 2021	Oct. 2021	%	Sept. 2021	Oct. 2021	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.	473	465	-2	152	191	26	625	656	5
P.E.I.	270	279	3	84	960	##	354	1,239	250
N.S.	2,374	4,073	72	1,509	5,155	242	3,883	9,228	138
N.B.	992	953	-4	1,121	1,965	75	2,113	2,918	38
Qc	6,940	7,536	9	46,495	44,078	-5	53,435	51,614	-3
Ont.	22,502	21,025	-7	68,520	54,795	-20	91,022	75,820	-17
Man.	2,360	2,411	2	6,264	1,872	-70	8,624	4,283	-50
Sask.	1,084	1,251	15	5,352	1,104	-79	6,436	2,355	-63
Alta.	12,575	12,565	0	12,383	21,634	75	24,958	34,199	37
B.C.	7,900	7,458	-6	23,627	25,027	6	31,527	32,485	3
Canada (10,000+)	57,470	58,016	1	165,507	156,781	-5	222,977	214,797	-4
Canada (All Areas)	76,225	73,374	-4	173,700	163,180	-6	249,922	236,554	-5
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	343	293	-15	1,128	528	-53	1,471	821	-44
Barrie	1,058	1,211	14	1,308	1,428	9	2,366	2,639	12
Belleville	289	353	22	84	168	100	373	521	40
Brantford	112	133	19	0	60	##	112	193	72
Calgary	5,166	5,991	16	6,504	9,180	41	11,670	15,171	30
Edmonton	5,509	5,422	-2	5,196	12,000	131	10,705	17,422	63
Greater Sudbury	167	216	29	1,860	72	-96	2,027	288	-86
Guelph	197	115	-42	0	96	##	197	211	7
Halifax	1,582	2,803	77	1,212	4,896	304	2,794	7,699	176
Hamilton	432	395	-9	516	612	19	948	1,007	6
Kelowna	925	781	-16	1,536	348	-77	2,461	1,129	-54
Kingston	252	414	64	72	264	267	324	678	109
Kitchener – Cambridge – Waterloo	678	579	-15	2,016	6,660	230	2,694	7,239	169
Lethbridge	183	242	32	108	264	144	291	506	74
London	2,114	1,908	-10	2,856	984	-66	4,970	2,892	-42
Moncton	312	297	-5	324	1,596	393	636	1,893	198
Montréal	2,518	2,542	1	31,582	25,638	-19	34,100	28,180	-17
Oshawa	1,163	1,053	-9	1,992	3,240	63	3,155	4,293	36
Ottawa – Gatineau	3,741	3,512	-6	11,976	14,148	18	15,717	17,660	12
Gatineau	563	650	15	6,288	3,036	-52	6,851	3,686	-46
Ottawa	3,178	2,862	-10	5,688	11,112	95	8,866	13,974	58
Peterborough	290	113	-61	0	0	-	290	113	-61
Québec	774	888	15	8,340	7,032	-16	9,114	7,920	-13
Regina	378	588	56	612	288	-53	990	876	-12
Saguenay	54	244	352	192	240	25	246	484	97
St. Catharines – Niagara	2,007	580	-71	1,944	2,652	36	3,951	3,232	-18
Saint John	285	308	8	576	96	-83	861	404	-53
St. John's	421	421	-	120	180	50	541	601	11
Saskatoon	675	640	-5	4,704	660	-86	5,379	1,300	-76
Sherbrooke	337	393	17	2,724	2,712	0	3,061	3,105	1
Thunder Bay	91	59	-35	0	0	-	91	59	-35
Toronto	5,919	6,331	7	49,416	25,260	-49	55,335	31,591	-43
Trois-Rivières	259	326	26	1,440	768	-47	1,699	1,094	-36
Vancouver	3,095	3,083	0	11,100	18,144	63	14,195	21,227	50
Victoria	705	769	9	4,272	3,204	-25	4,977	3,973	-20
Windsor	351	351	-	384	540	41	735	891	21
Winnipeg	1,973	2,064	5	5,988	1,644	-73	7,961	3,708	-53