Canadian housing starts trend lower in December

Ottawa, January 18, 2022

The trend in housing starts was 260,567 units in December, down from 267,606 units in November, 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 lower from November to December, but remains at very high levels,” said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. “For SAAR housing starts in Canada’s urban areas, both single-detached and multi-family starts decreased in December. On a positive note, actual urban housing starts were 21% higher in 2021, adding much needed supply. The increase was driven by higher single-detached (28%) and multi-family (19%) starts and was mainly due to recovery following COVID-19 shutdown measures in 2020.”

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 market to post growth in total SAAR starts in December, due to higher single-detached and multi-family 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 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 236,106 units in December, a decrease of 22% from 303,813 units in November. The SAAR of urban starts decreased by 24% in December to 212,918 units. Multiple urban starts decreased by 29% to 157,687 units in December, while single-detached urban starts decreased by 4% to 55,231 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 23,188 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 January data on February 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
	Dec. 2020	Dec. 2021	%	Dec. 2020	Dec. 2021	%	Dec. 2020	Dec. 2021	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.	53	56	6	7	24	243	60	80	33
P.E.I.	18	19	6	11	19	73	29	38	31
N.S.	143	149	4	353	607	72	496	756	52
N.B.	77	79	3	434	266	-39	511	345	-32
Atlantic	291	303	4	805	916	14	1,096	1,219	11
Qc	583	344	-41	3,952	3,274	-17	4,535	3,618	-20
Ont.	1,700	1,870	10	3,989	3,576	-10	5,689	5,446	-4
Man.	174	187	7	336	374	11	510	561	10
Sask.	137	125	-9	128	128	-	265	253	-5
Alta.	914	1,104	21	1,525	1,398	-8	2,439	2,502	3
Prairies	1,225	1,416	16	1,989	1,900	-4	3,214	3,316	3
B.C.	536	679	27	2,714	3,519	30	3,250	4,198	29
Canada (10,000+)	4,335	4,612	6	13,449	13,185	-2	17,784	17,797	0
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	30	18	-40	13	165	##	43	183	326
Barrie	34	90	165	6	62	##	40	152	280
Belleville	37	25	-32	14	8	-43	51	33	-35
Brantford	31	153	394	81	2	-98	112	155	38
Calgary	402	473	18	438	682	56	840	1,155	38
Edmonton	377	445	18	1,009	615	-39	1,386	1,060	-24
Greater Sudbury	6	8	33	8	4	-50	14	12	-14
Guelph	21	8	-62	87	32	-63	108	40	-63
Halifax	75	86	15	253	495	96	328	581	77
Hamilton	45	41	-9	281	261	-7	326	302	-7
Kelowna	0	106	##	0	457	##	0	563	##
Kingston	20	28	40	37	17	-54	57	45	-21
Kitchener – Cambridge – Waterloo	63	78	24	249	449	80	312	527	69
Lethbridge	28	27	-4	12	16	33	40	43	8
London	153	159	4	76	106	39	229	265	16
Moncton	18	17	-6	335	141	-58	353	158	-55
Montréal	159	104	-35	2,636	1,756	-33	2,795	1,860	-33
Oshawa	67	33	-51	97	19	-80	164	52	-68
Ottawa – Gatineau	262	223	-15	812	170	-79	1,074	393	-63
Gatineau	59	17	-71	248	11	-96	307	28	-91
Ottawa	203	206	1	564	159	-72	767	365	-52
Peterborough	25	39	56	0	0	-	25	39	56
Québec	44	50	14	397	605	52	441	655	49
Regina	47	33	-30	49	56	14	96	89	-7
Saguenay	22	10	-55	64	30	-53	86	40	-53
St. Catharines – Niagara	153	62	-59	79	101	28	232	163	-30
Saint John	29	28	-3	0	60	##	29	88	203
St. John's	44	52	18	6	24	300	50	76	52
Saskatoon	83	85	2	74	64	-14	157	149	-5
Sherbrooke	53	17	-68	103	260	152	156	277	78
Thunder Bay	1	11	##	0	0	-	1	11	##
Toronto	429	461	7	2,159	1,944	-10	2,588	2,405	-7
Trois-Rivières	10	12	20	33	131	297	43	143	233
Vancouver	241	222	-8	1,912	1,963	3	2,153	2,185	1
Victoria	67	92	37	274	545	99	341	637	87
Windsor	59	32	-46	54	72	33	113	104	-8
Winnipeg	136	149	10	179	333	86	315	482	53
Total	3,271	3,477	6	11,827	11,645	-2	15,098	15,122	0

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
	Nov. 2021	Dec. 2021	%	Nov. 2021	Dec. 2021	%	Nov. 2021	Dec. 2021	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.	332	496	49	12	309	##	344	805	134
P.E.I.	383	264	-31	588	228	-61	971	492	-49
N.S.	1,473	1,610	9	5,418	7,268	34	6,891	8,878	29
N.B.	690	829	20	3,922	3,193	-19	4,612	4,022	-13
Qc	7,466	4,523	-39	48,789	37,470	-23	56,255	41,993	-25
Ont.	24,291	22,076	-9	101,089	44,211	-56	125,380	66,287	-47
Man.	2,622	2,580	-2	3,204	4,488	40	5,826	7,068	21
Sask.	1,009	1,229	22	2,472	1,536	-38	3,481	2,765	-21
Alta.	12,130	12,887	6	28,093	16,730	-40	40,223	29,617	-26
B.C.	7,252	8,737	20	28,563	42,254	48	35,815	50,991	42
Canada (10,000+)	57,648	55,231	-4	222,150	157,687	-29	279,798	212,918	-24
Canada (All Areas)	73,324	70,826	-3	230,488	165,282	-28	303,813	236,106	-22
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	372	215	-42	288	1,980	##	660	2,195	233
Barrie	853	1,193	40	1,416	744	-47	2,269	1,937	-15
Belleville	275	310	13	108	96	-11	383	406	6
Brantford	1,797	2,517	40	2,688	24	-99	4,485	2,541	-43
Calgary	5,071	5,420	7	20,892	8,184	-61	25,963	13,604	-48
Edmonton	5,086	5,509	8	6,336	7,380	16	11,422	12,889	13
Greater Sudbury	150	134	-11	144	48	-67	294	182	-38
Guelph	213	124	-42	216	384	78	429	508	18
Halifax	993	1,064	7	4,512	5,940	32	5,505	7,004	27
Hamilton	363	723	99	6,168	3,132	-49	6,531	3,855	-41
Kelowna	1,187	1,210	2	3,576	5,484	53	4,763	6,694	41
Kingston	367	361	-2	6,408	204	-97	6,775	565	-92
Kitchener – Cambridge – Waterloo	608	854	40	2,616	5,388	106	3,224	6,242	94
Lethbridge	367	309	-16	264	192	-27	631	501	-21
London	1,934	1,918	-1	1,560	1,272	-18	3,494	3,190	-9
Moncton	147	251	71	3,120	1,692	-46	3,267	1,943	-41
Montréal	2,470	1,681	-32	33,742	21,067	-38	36,212	22,748	-37
Oshawa	715	571	-20	1,488	228	-85	2,203	799	-64
Ottawa – Gatineau	3,883	2,968	-24	14,616	2,040	-86	18,499	5,008	-73
Gatineau	872	186	-79	1,524	132	-91	2,396	318	-87
Ottawa	3,011	2,782	-8	13,092	1,908	-85	16,103	4,690	-71
Peterborough	337	437	30	0	0	-	337	437	30
Québec	940	783	-17	8,976	7,260	-19	9,916	8,043	-19
Regina	284	385	36	1,692	672	-60	1,976	1,057	-47
Saguenay	313	122	-61	624	360	-42	937	482	-49
St. Catharines – Niagara	896	827	-8	1,740	1,212	-30	2,636	2,039	-23
Saint John	171	294	72	0	720	##	171	1,014	493
St. John's	290	467	61	12	288	##	302	755	150
Saskatoon	593	962	62	660	768	16	1,253	1,730	38
Sherbrooke	439	171	-61	2,328	3,120	34	2,767	3,291	19
Thunder Bay	135	151	12	48	0	-100	183	151	-17
Toronto	7,687	6,309	-18	63,024	23,328	-63	70,711	29,637	-58
Trois-Rivières	300	228	-24	1,368	1,572	15	1,668	1,800	8
Vancouver	2,816	3,074	9	16,128	23,556	46	18,944	26,630	41
Victoria	492	1,261	156	3,708	6,540	76	4,200	7,801	86
Windsor	439	369	-16	1,428	864	-39	1,867	1,233	-34
Winnipeg	2,211	2,143	-3	2,532	3,996	58	4,743	6,139	29