Canadian housing starts trend higher in June

Ottawa, July 18, 2022

The trend in housing starts was 258,295 units in June, up from 252,444 units in May, 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.

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 monthly SAAR was lower in June compared to May; however, the level of housing starts activity in Canada remains historically high and well above 200,000 units since 2020,” said Bob Dugan, CMHC's Chief Economist. “The decrease in monthly SAAR housing starts in Canada’s urban areas was driven by lower single-detached starts in June. Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal all recorded higher total SAAR starts, driven by higher multi-unit starts except for Montreal where single-detached starts posted a higher increase.”

The standalone monthly SAAR of total housing starts for all areas in Canada in June was 273,841 units, a decrease of 3% from May. The SAAR of total urban starts decrease by 3% to 257,438 units in June. Multi-unit urban starts declined by 2% to 197,022 units, while single-detached urban starts decreased by 4% to 60,416 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 16,403 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 July data on August 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:

Media Relations, CMHC
media@cmhc-schl.gc.ca

June Housing Starts in Canada — All areas

Table 1: Housing Start Data in Centres 10,000 Population and Over
	Single-Detached			All Others			Total
	June 2021	June 2022	%	June 2021	June 2022	%	June 2021	June 2022	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.	67	83	24	14	5	-64	81	88	9
P.E.I.	33	16	-52	69	52	-25	102	68	-33
N.S.	116	167	44	65	282	334	181	449	148
N.B.	144	133	-8	236	356	51	380	489	29
Atlantic	360	399	11	384	695	81	744	1,094	47
Qc	1,076	898	-17	5,354	4,301	-20	6,430	5,199	-19
Ont.	2,318	2,123	-8	5,165	6,139	19	7,483	8,262	10
Man.	273	245	-10	529	413	-22	802	658	-18
Sask.	152	131	-14	148	430	191	300	561	87
Alta.	1,239	1,558	26	1,289	1,787	39	2,528	3,345	32
Prairies	1,664	1,934	16	1,966	2,630	34	3,630	4,564	26
B.C.	766	656	-14	4,520	3,837	-15	5,286	4,493	-15
Canada (10,000+)	6,184	6,010	-3	17,389	17,602	1	23,573	23,612	0
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	31	41	32	114	127	11	145	168	16
Barrie	55	107	95	42	197	369	97	304	213
Belleville	50	37	-26	0	8	##	50	45	-10
Brantford	11	22	100	6	162	##	17	184	##
Calgary	538	551	2	635	1,332	110	1,173	1,883	61
Edmonton	485	765	58	570	342	-40	1,055	1,107	5
Greater Sudbury	17	10	-41	23	4	-83	40	14	-65
Guelph	24	39	63	163	55	-66	187	94	-50
Halifax	4	119	##	11	271	##	15	390	##
Hamilton	85	85	-	323	307	-5	408	392	-4
Kelowna	96	74	-23	201	657	227	297	731	146
Kingston	35	34	-3	23	26	13	58	60	3
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	69	165	139	192	376	96	261	541	107
Lethbridge	37	32	-14	5	7	40	42	39	-7
London	161	156	-3	712	80	-89	873	236	-73
Moncton	40	38	-5	140	229	64	180	267	48
Montréal	301	280	-7	3,023	2,830	-6	3,324	3,110	-6
Oshawa	147	112	-24	285	205	-28	432	317	-27
Ottawa-Gatineau	443	258	-42	318	639	101	761	897	18
Gatineau	129	27	-79	22	105	377	151	132	-13
Ottawa	314	231	-26	296	534	80	610	765	25
Peterborough	24	39	63	0	0	-	24	39	63
Québec	121	97	-20	1,333	590	-56	1,454	687	-53
Regina	49	42	-14	38	45	18	87	87	-
Saguenay	66	25	-62	20	36	80	86	61	-29
St. Catharines-Niagara	70	105	50	88	40	-55	158	145	-8
Saint John	36	34	-6	6	2	-67	42	36	-14
St. John's	54	73	35	12	4	-67	66	77	17
Saskatoon	93	81	-13	103	384	273	196	465	137
Sherbrooke	61	47	-23	188	67	-64	249	114	-54
Thunder Bay	15	16	7	0	40	##	15	56	273
Toronto	590	466	-21	2,540	3,780	49	3,130	4,246	36
Trois-Rivières	45	45	-	83	97	17	128	142	11
Vancouver	279	296	6	3,512	2,446	-30	3,791	2,742	-28
Victoria	86	46	-47	272	187	-31	358	233	-35
Windsor	80	73	-9	91	66	-27	171	139	-19
Winnipeg	225	215	-4	470	319	-32	695	534	-23
Total	4,523	4,625	2	15,542	15,957	3	20,065	20,582	3

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
	May 2022	June 2022	%	May 2022	June 2022	%	May 2022	June 2022	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.	1,042	666	-36	93	55	-41	1,135	721	-36
P.E.I.	330	142	-57	468	624	33	798	766	-4
N.S.	1,970	1,911	-3	8,827	3,424	-61	10,797	5,335	-51
N.B.	1,532	1,031	-33	6,625	4,217	-36	8,157	5,248	-36
Qc	7,528	7,319	-3	53,175	40,076	-25	60,703	47,395	-22
Ont.	22,863	21,457	-6	64,981	71,263	10	87,844	92,720	6
Man.	2,455	2,472	1	3,768	4,956	32	6,223	7,428	19
Sask.	1,614	1,512	-6	2,712	5,160	90	4,326	6,672	54
Alta.	15,704	17,029	8	30,226	21,244	-30	45,930	38,273	-17
B.C.	7,666	6,877	-10	30,999	46,003	48	38,665	52,880	37
Canada (10,000+)	62,704	60,416	-4	201,874	197,022	-2	264,578	257,438	-3
Canada (All Areas)	74,993	72,072	-4	207,192	201,770	-3	282,188	273,841	-3
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	420	443	5	564	1,524	170	984	1,967	100
Barrie	843	1,296	54	456	2,364	418	1,299	3,660	182
Belleville	439	343	-22	144	96	-33	583	439	-25
Brantford	786	568	-28	3,132	1,944	-38	3,918	2,512	-36
Calgary	5,869	6,234	6	14,928	15,984	7	20,797	22,218	7
Edmonton	7,403	8,338	13	13,572	4,104	-70	20,975	12,442	-41
Greater Sudbury	214	77	-64	192	48	-75	406	125	-69
Guelph	138	266	93	72	660	##	210	926	341
Halifax	1,109	1,107	0	8,604	3,252	-62	9,713	4,359	-55
Hamilton	748	856	14	948	3,684	289	1,696	4,540	168
Kelowna	785	667	-15	1,332	7,884	492	2,117	8,551	304
Kingston	484	271	-44	1,836	312	-83	2,320	583	-75
Kitchener – Cambridge – Waterloo	1,194	1,774	49	1,308	4,512	245	2,502	6,286	151
Lethbridge	363	358	-1	240	84	-65	603	442	-27
London	1,485	1,905	28	4,500	960	-79	5,985	2,865	-52
Moncton	434	298	-31	3,576	2,748	-23	4,010	3,046	-24
Montréal	1,967	2,503	27	32,602	33,966	4	34,569	36,469	5
Oshawa	410	1,124	174	3,852	2,460	-36	4,262	3,584	-16
Ottawa – Gatineau	3,440	2,992	-13	11,484	7,668	-33	14,924	10,660	-29
Gatineau	496	584	18	6,084	1,260	-79	6,580	1,844	-72
Ottawa	2,944	2,408	-18	5,400	6,408	19	8,344	8,816	6
Peterborough	201	409	103	0	0	-	201	409	103
Québec	586	825	41	7,320	7,080	-3	7,906	7,905	0
Regina	473	409	-14	948	540	-43	1,421	949	-33
Saguenay	321	162	-50	264	432	64	585	594	2
St. Catharines – Niagara	1,604	1,238	-23	1,692	480	-72	3,296	1,718	-48
Saint John	415	295	-29	1,380	24	-98	1,795	319	-82
St. John's	960	514	-46	168	48	-71	1,128	562	-50
Saskatoon	1,026	891	-13	1,752	4,608	163	2,778	5,499	98
Sherbrooke	421	320	-24	2,568	804	-69	2,989	1,124	-62
Thunder Bay	128	100	-22	0	480	##	128	580	353
Toronto	4,833	4,500	-7	34,548	45,360	31	39,381	49,860	27
Trois-Rivières	279	291	4	864	1,164	35	1,143	1,455	27
Vancouver	3,270	3,068	-6	21,228	29,352	38	24,498	32,420	32
Victoria	661	421	-36	3,300	2,244	-32	3,961	2,665	-33
Windsor	477	581	22	1,128	792	-30	1,605	1,373	-14
Winnipeg	2,155	2,132	-1	3,000	3,828	28	5,155	5,960	16

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