Canadian housing starts trend higher in April

Ottawa, May 16, 2022

The trend in housing starts was 257,846 units in April, up from 253,226 units in March, 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.

“On a trend and monthly SAAR basis, the level of housing starts activity in Canada remains historically high, hovering well above 200,000 units since June 2020 and increased from March to April,” said Bob Dugan, CMHC's Chief Economist. “The increase in monthly SAAR housing starts in Canada’s urban areas was driven by higher multi-unit and single-detached starts in April. Among Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, Toronto was the only market to post a decrease in total SAAR starts, which was driven by lower multi-unit and single-detached starts.”

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 clearer picture of upcoming new housing supply. 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 total housing starts for all areas in Canada in April was 267,330 units, an increase of 8% from March. The SAAR of total urban starts increased by 10% to 245,324 units in April. Multi-unit urban starts increased by 14% to 178,092 units, while single-detached urban starts increased by 1% to 67,232 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 22,006 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 May data on June 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
	Apr. 2021	Apr. 2022	%	Apr. 2021	Apr. 2022	%	Apr. 2021	Apr. 2022	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.	30	56	87	7	7	-	37	63	70
P.E.I.	29	27	-7	27	61	126	56	88	57
N.S.	93	130	40	126	47	-63	219	177	-19
N.B.	76	61	-20	154	93	-40	230	154	-33
Atlantic	228	274	20	314	208	-34	542	482	-11
Qc	940	719	-24	4,742	4,679	-1	5,682	5,398	-5
Ont.	2,425	1,894	-22	5,490	4,188	-24	7,915	6,082	-23
Man.	286	157	-45	175	386	121	461	543	18
Sask.	164	156	-5	201	368	83	365	524	44
Alta.	1,362	1,413	4	1,442	2,058	43	2,804	3,471	24
Prairies	1,812	1,726	-5	1,818	2,812	55	3,630	4,538	25
B.C.	779	914	17	2,240	3,361	50	3,019	4,275	42
Canada (10,000+)	6,184	5,527	-11	14,604	15,248	4	20,788	20,775	0
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	20	56	180	32	147	359	52	203	290
Barrie	21	97	362	111	153	38	132	250	89
Belleville	42	27	-36	18	4	-78	60	31	-48
Brantford	20	18	-10	16	76	375	36	94	161
Calgary	564	609	8	735	902	23	1,299	1,511	16
Edmonton	587	619	5	642	1,048	63	1,229	1,667	36
Greater Sudbury	24	11	-54	0	6	##	24	17	-29
Guelph	34	15	-56	99	0	-100	133	15	-89
Halifax	28	81	189	88	18	-80	116	99	-15
Hamilton	176	35	-80	342	432	26	518	467	-10
Kelowna	58	90	55	74	195	164	132	285	116
Kingston	40	11	-73	17	6	-65	57	17	-70
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	98	77	-21	803	130	-84	901	207	-77
Lethbridge	43	32	-26	12	26	117	55	58	5
London	277	101	-64	478	99	-79	755	200	-74
Moncton	31	27	-13	94	43	-54	125	70	-44
Montréal	386	248	-36	3,094	2,751	-11	3,480	2,999	-14
Oshawa	162	118	-27	112	309	176	274	427	56
Ottawa-Gatineau	342	370	8	1,216	843	-31	1,558	1,213	-22
Gatineau	41	83	102	547	163	-70	588	246	-58
Ottawa	301	287	-5	669	680	2	970	967	0
Peterborough	21	28	33	0	0	-	21	28	33
Québec	158	87	-45	487	900	85	645	987	53
Regina	33	32	-3	27	64	137	60	96	60
Saguenay	39	35	-10	22	44	100	61	79	30
St. Catharines-Niagara	132	110	-17	94	384	309	226	494	119
Saint John	28	20	-29	48	40	-17	76	60	-21
St. John's	27	54	100	7	7	-	34	61	79
Saskatoon	125	115	-8	174	297	71	299	412	38
Sherbrooke	63	37	-41	176	135	-23	239	172	-28
Thunder Bay	8	0	-100	4	0	-100	12	0	-100
Toronto	613	521	-15	2,189	1,521	-31	2,802	2,042	-27
Trois-Rivières	40	49	23	41	232	466	81	281	247
Vancouver	293	335	14	1,330	2,281	72	1,623	2,616	61
Victoria	93	80	-14	265	250	-6	358	330	-8
Windsor	57	57	-	126	138	10	183	195	7
Winnipeg	242	121	-50	154	359	133	396	480	21
Total	4,925	4,323	-12	13,127	13,840	5	18,052	18,163	1

Data for 2021 and 2022 based on 2016 Census Definitions.
Source: CMHC Starts and Completion Survey, Market Absorption Survey
## not calculable / extreme value

Table 2: Housing Start Data — Seasonally Adjusted at Annual Rates (SAAR)
	Single-Detached			All Others			Total
	Mar. 2022	Apr. 2022	%	Mar. 2022	Apr. 2022	%	Mar. 2022	Apr. 2022	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.	1,500	1,425	-5	243	86	-65	1,743	1,511	-13
P.E.I.	768	373	-51	636	732	15	1,404	1,105	-21
N.S.	1,205	2,112	75	933	550	-41	2,138	2,662	25
N.B.	1,596	1,341	-16	3,780	1,271	-66	5,376	2,612	-51
Qc	7,712	7,542	-2	51,084	49,832	-2	58,796	57,374	-2
Ont.	26,144	26,509	1	58,447	52,389	-10	84,591	78,898	-7
Man.	1,319	1,749	33	5,208	4,632	-11	6,527	6,381	-2
Sask.	1,688	2,030	20	672	4,416	##	2,360	6,446	173
Alta.	16,291	14,755	-9	14,744	24,277	65	31,035	39,032	26
B.C.	8,274	9,396	14	20,682	39,907	93	28,956	49,303	70
Canada (10,000+)	66,497	67,232	1	156,429	178,092	14	222,926	245,324	10
Canada (All Areas)	84,506	83,247	-1	163,884	184,086	12	248,389	267,330	8
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	502	679	35	540	1,764	227	1,042	2,443	134
Barrie	2,522	3,049	21	3,444	1,836	-47	5,966	4,885	-18
Belleville	233	301	29	0	48	##	233	349	50
Brantford	263	324	23	336	912	171	599	1,236	106
Calgary	8,437	6,319	-25	8,388	10,824	29	16,825	17,143	2
Edmonton	6,313	6,826	8	5,544	12,576	127	11,857	19,402	64
Greater Sudbury	1,095	197	-82	204	72	-65	1,299	269	-79
Guelph	259	210	-19	0	0	-	259	210	-19
Halifax	829	1,158	40	672	216	-68	1,501	1,374	-8
Hamilton	822	580	-29	1,824	5,184	184	2,646	5,764	118
Kelowna	580	979	69	1,788	2,340	31	2,368	3,319	40
Kingston	119	132	11	0	72	##	119	204	71
Kitchener – Cambridge – Waterloo	819	914	12	3,300	1,560	-53	4,119	2,474	-40
Lethbridge	140	314	124	72	312	333	212	626	195
London	1,458	1,215	-17	1,284	1,188	-7	2,742	2,403	-12
Moncton	306	362	18	888	516	-42	1,194	878	-26
Montréal	2,339	2,136	-9	21,082	32,142	52	23,421	34,278	46
Oshawa	1,229	1,280	4	792	3,708	368	2,021	4,988	147
Ottawa – Gatineau	3,348	4,683	40	13,428	10,116	-25	16,776	14,799	-12
Gatineau	1,190	1,228	3	5,484	1,956	-64	6,674	3,184	-52
Ottawa	2,158	3,455	60	7,944	8,160	3	10,102	11,615	15
Peterborough	547	357	-35	0	0	-	547	357	-35
Québec	1,392	774	-44	9,192	10,800	17	10,584	11,574	9
Regina	403	420	4	468	768	64	871	1,188	36
Saguenay	574	391	-32	240	528	120	814	919	13
St. Catharines – Niagara	816	1,104	35	960	4,608	380	1,776	5,712	222
Saint John	439	356	-19	0	480	##	439	836	90
St. John's	1,447	1,246	-14	168	84	-50	1,615	1,330	-18
Saskatoon	1,117	1,510	35	192	3,564	##	1,309	5,074	288
Sherbrooke	295	424	44	888	1,620	82	1,183	2,044	73
Thunder Bay	88	5	-94	0	0	-	88	5	-94
Toronto	8,094	6,353	-22	31,404	18,252	-42	39,498	24,605	-38
Trois-Rivières	407	369	-9	72	2,784	##	479	3,153	##
Vancouver	3,438	3,548	3	10,824	27,372	153	14,262	30,920	117
Victoria	740	841	14	732	3,000	310	1,472	3,841	161
Windsor	1,165	754	-35	120	1,656	##	1,285	2,410	88
Winnipeg	958	1,292	35	3,660	4,308	18	4,618	5,600	21

Data for 2021 and 2022 based on 2016 Census Definitions.
Source: CMHC Starts and Completion Survey, Market Absorption Survey
## not calculable / extreme value