February Housing Starts Decline in Canada

Ottawa, March 15, 2021

The trend in housing starts was 242,777 units in February 2021, down from 244,963 units in January 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 national trend in housing starts declined in February, but remained elevated,” said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. “Single-detached SAAR starts declined in February following strong growth in January, particularly in Montreal. Multi-family SAAR starts also declined in several centres in February, further contributing to the decline in the overall trend.”

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 245,922 units in February, a decrease of 13.5% from 284,372 units in January. The SAAR of urban starts decreased by 14% in February to 231,042 units. Multiple urban starts decreased by 15.8% to 163,757 units in February while single-detached urban starts decreased by 9.3% to 67,285 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 14,880 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 March 2021 data on April 19 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
	Feb. 2020	Feb. 2021	%	Feb. 2020	Feb. 2021	%	Feb. 2020	Feb. 2021	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.	6	8	33	9	0	-100	15	8	-47
P.E.I.	7	6	-14	68	10	-85	75	16	-79
N.S.	95	90	-5	474	173	-64	569	263	-54
N.B.	14	15	7	34	50	47	48	65	35
Atlantic	122	119	-2	585	233	-60	707	352	-50
Qc	262	382	46	2,248	3,602	60	2,510	3,984	59
Ont.	1,083	1,560	44	4,078	3,542	-13	5,161	5,102	-1
Man.	171	173	1	159	310	95	330	483	46
Sask.	60	93	55	69	119	72	129	212	64
Alta.	691	838	21	688	1,015	48	1,379	1,853	34
Prairies	922	1,104	20	916	1,444	58	1,838	2,548	39
B.C.	452	570	26	2,564	2,706	6	3,016	3,276	9
Canada (10,000+)	2,841	3,735	31	10,391	11,527	11	13,232	15,262	15
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	15	28	87	207	131	-37	222	159	-28
Barrie	70	33	-53	0	4	##	70	37	-47
Belleville	13	14	8	2	2	-	15	16	7
Brantford	26	33	27	4	58	##	30	91	203
Calgary	298	343	15	348	299	-14	646	642	-1
Edmonton	324	409	26	296	558	89	620	967	56
Greater Sudbury	0	0	-	0	2	##	0	2	##
Guelph	1	11	##	10	55	450	11	66	##
Halifax	62	70	13	373	143	-62	435	213	-51
Hamilton	28	28	-	549	623	13	577	651	13
Kelowna	40	92	130	276	163	-41	316	255	-19
Kingston	15	20	33	0	5	##	15	25	67
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	63	70	11	241	32	-87	304	102	-66
Lethbridge	15	23	53	12	111	##	27	134	396
London	112	194	73	84	520	##	196	714	264
Moncton	6	7	17	0	2	##	6	9	50
Montréal	113	130	15	1,330	2,929	120	1,443	3,059	112
Oshawa	48	166	246	140	176	26	188	342	82
Ottawa-Gatineau	176	227	29	1,002	527	-47	1,178	754	-36
Gatineau	23	17	-26	370	79	-79	393	96	-76
Ottawa	153	210	37	632	448	-29	785	658	-16
Peterborough	3	10	233	0	131	##	3	141	##
Québec	42	94	124	132	142	8	174	236	36
Regina	24	17	-29	42	86	105	66	103	56
Saguenay	1	3	200	20	4	-80	21	7	-67
St. Catharines-Niagara	88	59	-33	108	93	-14	196	152	-22
Saint John	4	5	25	33	0	-100	37	5	-86
St. John's	5	8	60	8	0	-100	13	8	-38
Saskatoon	33	73	121	24	29	21	57	102	79
Sherbrooke	8	40	400	36	140	289	44	180	309
Thunder Bay	0	0	-	0	0	-	0	0	-
Toronto	230	456	98	2,176	1,149	-47	2,406	1,605	-33
Trois-Rivières	1	4	300	36	11	-69	37	15	-59
Vancouver	210	206	-2	1,420	2,011	42	1,630	2,217	36
Victoria	68	74	9	414	83	-80	482	157	-67
Windsor	42	32	-24	23	31	35	65	63	-3
Winnipeg	155	152	-2	159	299	88	314	451	44
Total	2,339	3,131	34	9,505	10,549	11	11,844	13,680	16

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
	Jan. 2021	Feb. 2021	%	Jan. 2021	Feb. 2021	%	Jan. 2021	Feb. 2021	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.	520	443	-15	109	3	-97	629	446	-29
P.E.I.	890	251	-72	192	120	-38	1,082	371	-66
N.S.	1,831	1,782	-3	3,942	2,366	-40	5,773	4,148	-28
N.B.	1,102	963	-13	1,658	972	-41	2,760	1,935	-30
Qc	19,486	10,486	-46	76,525	62,491	-18	96,011	72,977	-24
Ont.	25,025	28,397	13	63,156	47,529	-25	88,181	75,926	-14
Man.	1,848	2,572	39	6,408	3,720	-42	8,256	6,292	-24
Sask.	1,321	1,689	28	3,036	1,428	-53	4,357	3,117	-28
Alta.	12,017	11,970	0	16,024	12,611	-21	28,041	24,581	-12
B.C.	10,151	8,732	-14	23,473	32,517	39	33,624	41,249	23
Canada (10,000+)	74,191	67,285	-9	194,523	163,757	-16	268,714	231,042	-14
Canada (All Areas)	84,652	77,342	-9	199,721	168,579	-16	284,372	245,922	-14
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	367	452	23	636	1,572	147	1,003	2,024	102
Barrie	789	864	10	2,652	48	-98	3,441	912	-73
Belleville	162	672	315	168	24	-86	330	696	111
Brantford	477	625	31	1,800	696	-61	2,277	1,321	-42
Calgary	4,846	4,693	-3	9,336	3,588	-62	14,182	8,281	-42
Edmonton	5,856	5,885	0	5,196	6,696	29	11,052	12,581	14
Greater Sudbury	553	134	-76	0	24	##	553	158	-71
Guelph	305	208	-32	24	660	##	329	868	164
Halifax	1,254	1,373	9	3,492	1,716	-51	4,746	3,089	-35
Hamilton	1,086	553	-49	1,392	7,476	437	2,478	8,029	224
Kelowna	918	1,045	14	372	1,956	426	1,290	3,001	133
Kingston	245	533	118	1,272	60	-95	1,517	593	-61
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	976	846	-13	9,348	384	-96	10,324	1,230	-88
Lethbridge	359	335	-7	96	1,332	##	455	1,667	266
London	3,553	3,314	-7	408	6,240	##	3,961	9,554	141
Moncton	237	351	48	1,176	24	-98	1,413	375	-73
Montréal	8,078	3,077	-62	29,412	36,769	25	37,490	39,846	6
Oshawa	1,901	2,317	22	396	2,112	433	2,297	4,429	93
Ottawa-Gatineau	5,572	5,506	-1	5,316	6,324	19	10,888	11,830	9
Gatineau	1,796	623	-65	1,500	948	-37	3,296	1,571	-52
Ottawa	3,776	4,883	29	3,816	5,376	41	7,592	10,259	35
Peterborough	505	452	-10	0	1,572	##	505	2,024	301
Québec	2,585	1,992	-23	10,992	1,704	-84	13,577	3,696	-73
Regina	253	227	-10	360	1,032	187	613	1,259	105
Saguenay	1,434	222	-85	360	48	-87	1,794	270	-85
St. Catharines-Niagara	1,042	894	-14	1,356	1,116	-18	2,398	2,010	-16
Saint John	381	341	-10	24	0	-100	405	341	-16
St. John's	448	418	-7	96	0	-100	544	418	-23
Saskatoon	1,030	1,465	42	2,568	348	-86	3,598	1,813	-50
Sherbrooke	1,337	1,828	37	984	1,680	71	2,321	3,508	51
Thunder Bay	95	105	11	0	0	-	95	105	11
Toronto	6,089	10,622	74	30,876	13,788	-55	36,965	24,410	-34
Trois-Rivières	321	353	10	348	132	-62	669	485	-28
Vancouver	3,597	3,622	1	14,196	24,132	70	17,793	27,754	56
Victoria	1,088	1,079	-1	1,716	996	-42	2,804	2,075	-26
Windsor	550	604	10	1,380	372	-73	1,930	976	-49
Winnipeg	1,515	2,085	38	6,180	3,588	-42	7,695	5,673	-26