Canadian housing starts trended slightly higher in May

Ottawa, June 15, 2021

The trend in housing starts was 280,779 units in May 2021, up slightly from 278,462 units in April 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 remained elevated in May, registering a slight increase from April,” said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. “In May, higher multi-family SAAR starts offset lower single-detached starts in Canada’s urban areas, contributing to the increase in the National trend. However, Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal starts trended lower in May, as these markets continued to moderate from the historical highs recorded in the first quarter of the year.”

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 275,916 units in May, an increase of 3.2% from 267,449 units in April. The SAAR of urban starts increased by 1.8% in May to 254,647 units. Multiple urban starts increased by 10.9% to 190,530 units in May while single-detached urban starts decreased by 18% to 64,117 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 21,269 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 June 2021 data on July 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:

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
	May 2020	May 2021	%	May 2020	May 2021	%	May 2020	May 2021	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.	16	51	219	1	16	##	17	67	294
P.E.I.	17	60	253	72	46	-36	89	106	19
N.S.	110	63	-43	166	609	267	276	672	143
N.B.	56	114	104	225	446	98	281	560	99
Atlantic	199	288	45	464	1,117	141	663	1,405	112
Qc	1,006	985	-2	4,313	4,166	-3	5,319	5,151	-3
Ont.	1,651	2,507	52	3,252	5,439	67	4,903	7,946	62
Man.	141	223	58	181	320	77	322	543	69
Sask.	82	176	115	78	280	259	160	456	185
Alta.	632	1,121	77	940	1,738	85	1,572	2,859	82
Prairies	855	1,520	78	1,199	2,338	95	2,054	3,858	88
B.C.	578	686	19	2,497	2,925	17	3,075	3,611	17
Canada (10,000+)	4,289	5,986	40	11,725	15,985	36	16,014	21,971	37
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	36	30	-17	14	27	93	50	57	14
Barrie	106	66	-38	10	158	##	116	224	93
Belleville	18	52	189	12	15	25	30	67	123
Brantford	32	45	41	32	57	78	64	102	59
Calgary	262	460	76	459	1,121	144	721	1,581	119
Edmonton	275	508	85	395	552	40	670	1,060	58
Greater Sudbury	2	21	##	2	18	##	4	39	##
Guelph	27	12	-56	0	9	##	27	21	-22
Halifax	84	13	-85	137	554	304	221	567	157
Hamilton	52	29	-44	57	307	439	109	336	208
Kelowna	43	54	26	113	41	-64	156	95	-39
Kingston	12	39	225	200	15	-93	212	54	-75
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	52	110	112	79	424	437	131	534	308
Lethbridge	11	29	164	6	15	150	17	44	159
London	46	234	409	94	325	246	140	559	299
Moncton	18	43	139	153	263	72	171	306	79
Montréal	406	308	-24	2,502	2,129	-15	2,908	2,437	-16
Oshawa	83	188	127	95	656	##	178	844	374
Ottawa-Gatineau	334	408	22	686	1,310	91	1,020	1,718	68
Gatineau	52	47	-10	275	418	52	327	465	42
Ottawa	282	361	28	411	892	117	693	1,253	81
Peterborough	24	31	29	13	0	-100	37	31	-16
Québec	172	138	-20	842	864	3	1,014	1,002	-1
Regina	11	39	255	31	14	-55	42	53	26
Saguenay	23	42	83	40	30	-25	63	72	14
St. Catharines-Niagara	66	90	36	29	172	493	95	262	176
Saint John	16	25	56	2	7	250	18	32	78
St. John's	11	47	327	0	14	##	11	61	455
Saskatoon	65	128	97	46	259	463	111	387	249
Sherbrooke	36	49	36	114	147	29	150	196	31
Thunder Bay	3	14	367	24	7	-71	27	21	-22
Toronto	530	599	13	2,028	2,057	1	2,558	2,656	4
Trois-Rivières	36	34	-6	121	54	-55	157	88	-44
Vancouver	241	258	7	1,853	2,300	24	2,094	2,558	22
Victoria	55	62	13	205	131	-36	260	193	-26
Windsor	52	69	33	24	167	##	76	236	211
Winnipeg	115	187	63	138	306	122	253	493	95
Total	3,355	4,461	33	10,556	14,525	38	13,911	18,986	36

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
	April 2021	May 2021	%	April 2021	May 2021	%	April 2021	May 2021	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.	834	610	-27	105	199	90	939	809	-14
P.E.I.	440	562	28	324	552	70	764	1,114	46
N.S.	1,214	865	-29	1,693	7,301	331	2,907	8,166	181
N.B.	2,021	1,342	-34	2,070	5,009	142	4,091	6,351	55
Qc	9,656	8,648	-10	52,579	49,172	-6	62,235	57,820	-7
Ont.	35,280	27,237	-23	66,421	64,920	-2	101,701	92,157	-9
Man.	2,996	2,550	-15	1,992	3,840	93	4,988	6,390	28
Sask.	2,493	2,088	-16	2,460	3,360	37	4,953	5,448	10
Alta.	14,742	12,567	-15	17,201	21,142	23	31,943	33,709	6
B.C.	8,514	7,648	-10	27,028	35,035	30	35,542	42,683	20
Canada (10,000+)	78,190	64,117	-18	171,873	190,530	11	250,063	254,647	2
Canada (All Areas)	90,951	79,955	-12	176,500	195,962	11	267,449	275,916	3
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	269	288	7	384	324	-16	653	612	-6
Barrie	881	642	-27	1,332	1,896	42	2,213	2,538	15
Belleville	492	455	-8	216	180	-17	708	635	-10
Brantford	365	473	30	192	684	256	557	1,157	108
Calgary	6,301	4,914	-22	8,820	13,452	53	15,121	18,366	21
Edmonton	6,607	5,920	-10	7,704	6,624	-14	14,311	12,544	-12
Greater Sudbury	1,008	434	-57	0	216	##	1,008	650	-36
Guelph	500	105	-79	1,188	108	-91	1,688	213	-87
Halifax	498	165	-67	1,056	6,648	##	1,554	6,813	338
Hamilton	2,215	357	-84	4,104	3,684	-10	6,319	4,041	-36
Kelowna	620	578	-7	888	492	-45	1,508	1,070	-29
Kingston	483	465	-4	204	180	-12	687	645	-6
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	1,173	1,457	24	9,636	5,088	-47	10,809	6,545	-39
Lethbridge	560	442	-21	144	180	25	704	622	-12
London	3,230	2,445	-24	5,736	3,900	-32	8,966	6,345	-29
Moncton	594	486	-18	1,128	3,156	180	1,722	3,642	111
Montréal	3,628	2,605	-28	35,808	25,347	-29	39,436	27,952	-29
Oshawa	2,165	1,820	-16	1,344	7,872	486	3,509	9,692	176
Ottawa-Gatineau	4,987	4,480	-10	14,592	15,720	8	19,579	20,200	3
Gatineau	580	529	-9	6,564	5,016	-24	7,144	5,545	-22
Ottawa	4,407	3,951	-10	8,028	10,704	33	12,435	14,655	18
Peterborough	256	284	11	0	0	-	256	284	11
Québec	1,441	1,131	-22	5,844	10,368	77	7,285	11,499	58
Regina	518	631	22	324	168	-48	842	799	-5
Saguenay	440	375	-15	264	360	36	704	735	4
St. Catharines-Niagara	1,454	1,376	-5	1,128	2,064	83	2,582	3,440	33
Saint John	464	264	-43	576	84	-85	1,040	348	-67
St. John's	773	706	-9	84	168	100	857	874	2
Saskatoon	1,993	1,390	-30	2,088	3,108	49	4,081	4,498	10
Sherbrooke	718	665	-7	2,112	1,764	-16	2,830	2,429	-14
Thunder Bay	715	298	-58	48	84	75	763	382	-50
Toronto	7,445	6,281	-16	26,268	24,684	-6	33,713	30,965	-8
Trois-Rivières	357	221	-38	492	648	32	849	869	2
Vancouver	3,165	3,001	-5	15,960	27,600	73	19,125	30,601	60
Victoria	1,042	675	-35	3,180	1,572	-51	4,222	2,247	-47
Windsor	661	703	6	1,512	2,004	33	2,173	2,707	25
Winnipeg	2,518	2,071	-18	1,848	3,672	99	4,366	5,743	32