Canadian housing starts trend higher in November

Ottawa, December 15, 2021

The trend in housing starts was 267,365 units in November, up from 264,583 units in October, 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 was higher from October to November, with total starts rebounding from their declines in prior months,” said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. “For SAAR housing starts in Canada’s urban areas, there was a slight decrease in single-detached starts, while multi-family starts experienced a large increase in November, resulting in higher overall starts for the month. On a trend and monthly SAAR basis, the level of housing starts activity in Canada remains high in historical terms. Among Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, Vancouver was the only negative market, while Toronto had a significant gain in total SAAR starts in November, due to the multi-family segment more than doubling from the prior month.”

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 301,279 units in November, an increase of 26% from 238,366 units in October. The SAAR of urban starts increased by 29% in November to 279,396 units. Multiple urban starts increased by 41% to 221,153 units in November, while single-detached urban starts decreased by 1% to 58,243 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 21,883 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 December data on January 18 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
	Nov. 2020	Nov. 2021	%	Nov. 2020	Nov. 2021	%	Nov. 2020	Nov. 2021	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.	53	37	-30	27	3	-89	80	40	-50
P.E.I.	33	42	27	57	49	-14	90	91	1
N.S.	184	165	-10	471	428	-9	655	593	-9
N.B.	105	76	-28	333	334	0	438	410	-6
Atlantic	375	320	-15	888	814	-8	1,263	1,134	-10
Qc	736	787	7	4,400	4,732	8	5,136	5,519	7
Ont.	2,251	2,277	1	5,358	8,800	64	7,609	11,077	46
Man.	172	214	24	778	249	-68	950	463	-51
Sask.	121	90	-26	153	205	34	274	295	8
Alta.	936	1,080	15	1,278	2,334	83	2,214	3,414	54
Prairies	1,229	1,384	13	2,209	2,788	26	3,438	4,172	21
B.C.	656	629	-4	3,226	2,374	-26	3,882	3,003	-23
Canada (10,000+)	5,247	5,397	3	16,081	19,508	21	21,328	24,905	17
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	26	35	35	7	24	243	33	59	79
Barrie	76	95	25	24	118	392	100	213	113
Belleville	44	24	-45	4	9	125	48	33	-31
Brantford	67	147	119	69	224	225	136	371	173
Calgary	353	451	28	599	1,741	191	952	2,192	130
Edmonton	422	444	5	581	528	-9	1,003	972	-3
Greater Sudbury	16	18	13	18	12	-33	34	30	-12
Guelph	24	22	-8	17	18	6	41	40	-2
Halifax	122	63	-48	401	376	-6	523	439	-16
Hamilton	102	41	-60	129	514	298	231	555	140
Kelowna	48	135	181	66	298	352	114	433	280
Kingston	58	45	-22	58	534	##	116	579	399
Kitchener – Cambridge – Waterloo	96	52	-46	90	218	142	186	270	45
Lethbridge	27	33	22	9	22	144	36	55	53
London	195	151	-23	1,075	130	-88	1,270	281	-78
Moncton	26	16	-38	177	260	47	203	276	36
Montréal	281	256	-9	2,810	2,835	1	3,091	3,091	-
Oshawa	98	58	-41	127	124	-2	225	182	-19
Ottawa – Gatineau	366	362	-1	1,130	1,218	8	1,496	1,580	6
Gatineau	58	67	16	349	127	-64	407	194	-52
Ottawa	308	295	-4	781	1,091	40	1,089	1,386	27
Peterborough	47	33	-30	0	0	-	47	33	-30
Québec	67	81	21	371	748	102	438	829	89
Regina	32	22	-31	85	141	66	117	163	39
Saguenay	27	29	7	24	52	117	51	81	59
St. Catharines – Niagara	113	79	-30	89	145	63	202	224	11
Saint John	34	21	-38	66	0	-100	100	21	-79
St. John's	43	31	-28	27	1	-96	70	32	-54
Saskatoon	80	58	-28	62	55	-11	142	113	-20
Sherbrooke	21	35	67	106	194	83	127	229	80
Thunder Bay	18	11	-39	0	4	##	18	15	-17
Toronto	522	688	32	2,391	5,252	120	2,913	5,940	104
Trois-Rivières	21	26	24	51	114	124	72	140	94
Vancouver	262	224	-15	2,503	1,344	-46	2,765	1,568	-43
Victoria	60	38	-37	171	309	81	231	347	50
Windsor	65	38	-42	167	119	-29	232	157	-32
Winnipeg	134	167	25	540	211	-61	674	378	-44
Total	3,993	4,029	1	14,044	17,892	27	18,037	21,921	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
	Oct. 2021	Nov. 2021	%	Oct. 2021	Nov. 2021	%	Oct. 2021	Nov. 2021	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.	453	342	-25	191	35	-82	644	377	-41
P.E.I.	284	387	36	960	588	-39	1,244	975	-22
N.S.	4,035	1,797	-55	5,237	5,021	-4	9,272	6,818	-26
N.B.	932	686	-26	1,964	3,974	102	2,896	4,660	61
Qc	7,965	8,210	3	44,544	50,793	14	52,509	59,003	12
Ont.	21,682	24,313	12	54,774	99,253	81	76,456	123,566	62
Man.	2,416	2,590	7	1,872	2,988	60	4,288	5,578	30
Sask.	1,248	996	-20	1,104	2,460	123	2,352	3,456	47
Alta.	12,503	11,714	-6	21,676	27,587	27	34,179	39,301	15
B.C.	7,414	7,208	-3	25,030	28,454	14	32,444	35,662	10
Canada (10,000+)	58,932	58,243	-1	157,352	221,153	41	216,284	279,396	29
Canada (All Areas)	74,185	73,301	-1	164,180	227,977	39	238,366	301,279	26
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	299	382	28	528	288	-45	827	670	-19
Barrie	1,186	848	-28	1,428	1,416	-1	2,614	2,264	-13
Belleville	351	277	-21	168	108	-36	519	385	-26
Brantford	227	1,408	##	60	2,688	##	287	4,096	##
Calgary	5,774	5,041	-13	9,180	20,892	128	14,954	25,933	73
Edmonton	5,384	5,069	-6	12,000	6,336	-47	17,384	11,405	-34
Greater Sudbury	218	152	-30	72	144	100	290	296	2
Guelph	111	235	112	96	216	125	207	451	118
Halifax	3,301	993	-70	4,896	4,512	-8	8,197	5,505	-33
Hamilton	403	340	-16	612	6,168	##	1,015	6,508	##
Kelowna	803	1,149	43	348	3,576	##	1,151	4,725	311
Kingston	414	370	-11	264	6,408	##	678	6,778	##
Kitchener – Cambridge – Waterloo	596	582	-2	6,660	2,616	-61	7,256	3,198	-56
Lethbridge	245	369	51	264	264	-	509	633	24
London	1,915	1,945	2	984	1,560	59	2,899	3,505	21
Moncton	276	151	-45	1,596	3,120	95	1,872	3,271	75
Montréal	2,556	2,584	1	25,650	33,765	32	28,206	36,349	29
Oshawa	1,035	764	-26	3,240	1,488	-54	4,275	2,252	-47
Ottawa – Gatineau	3,578	3,923	10	14,148	14,616	3	17,726	18,539	5
Gatineau	665	840	26	3,036	1,524	-50	3,701	2,364	-36
Ottawa	2,913	3,083	6	11,112	13,092	18	14,025	16,175	15
Peterborough	117	330	182	0	0	-	117	330	182
Québec	905	946	5	7,032	8,976	28	7,937	9,922	25
Regina	579	286	-51	288	1,692	488	867	1,978	128
Saguenay	244	325	33	240	624	160	484	949	96
St. Catharines – Niagara	561	939	67	2,652	1,740	-34	3,213	2,679	-17
Saint John	297	170	-43	96	0	-100	393	170	-57
St. John's	412	279	-32	180	12	-93	592	291	-51
Saskatoon	636	580	-9	660	660	-	1,296	1,240	-4
Sherbrooke	396	457	15	2,712	2,328	-14	3,108	2,785	-10
Thunder Bay	67	116	73	0	48	##	67	164	145
Toronto	6,780	8,034	18	25,260	63,024	150	32,040	71,058	122
Trois-Rivières	325	307	-6	768	1,368	78	1,093	1,675	53
Vancouver	3,008	2,811	-7	18,144	16,128	-11	21,152	18,939	-10
Victoria	754	526	-30	3,204	3,708	16	3,958	4,234	7
Windsor	358	441	23	540	1,428	164	898	1,869	108
Winnipeg	2,061	2,210	7	1,644	2,532	54	3,705	4,742	28