Canadian housing starts trend lower in March

Ottawa, April 19, 2022

The trend in housing starts was 252,497 units in March, down from 253,296 units in February, 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 above 200,000 units since June 2020; however, the trend in housing starts posted a small decline from February to March,” said Bob Dugan, CMHC's Chief Economist. “The decline in the monthly SAAR housing starts in Canada’s urban areas, was driven by lower multi-unit starts, which were partially offset by higher single-detached starts in March. Among Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, Montreal was the only market to post growth in total SAAR starts, which was driven by higher multi-unit 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 March was 246,243 units, a decrease of 2% from February. The SAAR of total urban starts decreased by 2% to 220,708 units in March. Multi-unit urban starts decreased by 5% to 154,876 units, while single-detached urban starts increased by 8% to 65,832 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 25,535 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 April data on May 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

March Housing Starts in Canada — All areas

Table 1: Housing Start Data in Centres 10,000 Population and Over
	Single-Detached			All Others			Total
	March 2021	March 2022	%	March 2021	March 2022	%	March 2021	March 2022	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.	12	29	142	11	14	27	23	43	87
P.E.I.	10	20	100	2	53	##	12	73	##
N.S.	83	60	-28	209	75	-64	292	135	-54
N.B.	11	17	55	4	269	##	15	286	##
Atlantic	116	126	9	226	411	82	342	537	57
Qc	722	484	-33	3,673	3,497	-5	4,395	3,981	-9
Ont.	1,997	1,630	-18	6,663	4,584	-31	8,660	6,214	-28
Man.	207	103	-50	145	434	199	352	537	53
Sask.	96	104	8	337	56	-83	433	160	-63
Alta.	875	1,079	23	1,099	1,200	9	1,974	2,279	15
Prairies	1,178	1,286	9	1,581	1,690	7	2,759	2,976	8
B.C.	695	646	-7	4,838	1,745	-64	5,533	2,391	-57
Canada (10,000+)	4,708	4,172	-11	16,981	11,927	-30	21,689	16,099	-26
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	40	42	5	24	45	88	64	87	36
Barrie	14	65	364	0	287	##	14	352	##
Belleville	20	9	-55	0	0	-	20	9	-55
Brantford	31	30	-3	13	28	115	44	58	32
Calgary	337	543	61	721	699	-3	1,058	1,242	17
Edmonton	417	454	9	325	462	42	742	916	23
Greater Sudbury	4	10	150	0	17	##	4	27	##
Guelph	7	21	200	19	0	-100	26	21	-19
Halifax	39	41	5	157	56	-64	196	97	-51
Hamilton	66	75	14	54	152	181	120	227	89
Kelowna	83	52	-37	174	149	-14	257	201	-22
Kingston	45	7	-84	200	0	-100	245	7	-97
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	79	58	-27	286	275	-4	365	333	-9
Lethbridge	25	7	-72	14	6	-57	39	13	-67
London	158	97	-39	77	107	39	235	204	-13
Moncton	3	3	-	0	74	##	3	77	##
Montréal	257	141	-45	2,211	1,756	-21	2,468	1,897	-23
Oshawa	117	90	-23	309	66	-79	426	156	-63
Ottawa-Gatineau	333	199	-40	863	1,119	30	1,196	1,318	10
Gatineau	28	64	129	154	457	197	182	521	186
Ottawa	305	135	-56	709	662	-7	1,014	797	-21
Peterborough	16	29	81	0	0	-	16	29	81
Québec	115	107	-7	452	766	69	567	873	54
Regina	22	28	27	78	39	-50	100	67	-33
Saguenay	6	14	133	20	20	-	26	34	31
St. Catharines-Niagara	100	55	-45	188	80	-57	288	135	-53
Saint John	3	7	133	0	0	-	3	7	133
St. John's	11	28	155	5	14	180	16	42	163
Saskatoon	73	70	-4	259	16	-94	332	86	-74
Sherbrooke	56	22	-61	275	74	-73	331	96	-71
Thunder Bay	1	0	-100	0	0	-	1	0	-100
Toronto	505	546	8	4,604	2,617	-43	5,109	3,163	-38
Trois-Rivières	26	13	-50	40	6	-85	66	19	-71
Vancouver	261	261	-	3,450	902	-74	3,711	1,163	-69
Victoria	73	60	-18	528	61	-88	601	121	-80
Windsor	19	50	163	20	10	-50	39	60	54
Winnipeg	175	78	-55	119	305	156	294	383	30
Total	3,537	3,312	-6	15,485	10,208	-34	19,022	13,520	-29

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
	February 2022	March 2022	%	February 2022	March 2022	%	February 2022	March 2022	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.	1,073	1,482	38	175	222	27	1,248	1,704	37
P.E.I.	281	744	165	120	636	430	401	1,380	244
N.S.	1,167	1,178	1	1,457	933	-36	2,624	2,111	-20
N.B.	949	1,729	82	340	3,786	##	1,289	5,515	328
Qc	8,079	7,847	-3	39,142	50,624	29	47,221	58,471	24
Ont.	23,524	26,051	11	75,520	57,551	-24	99,044	83,602	-16
Man.	2,221	1,326	-40	6,120	5,208	-15	8,341	6,534	-22
Sask.	1,673	1,619	-3	1,824	672	-63	3,497	2,291	-34
Alta.	14,227	15,758	11	15,775	14,644	-7	30,002	30,402	1
B.C.	7,737	8,098	5	23,334	20,600	-12	31,071	28,698	-8
Canada (10,000+)	60,931	65,832	8	163,807	154,876	-5	224,738	220,708	-2
Canada (All Areas)	78,321	83,911	7	171,925	162,331	-6	250,246	246,243	-2
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	451	479	6	1,008	540	-46	1,459	1,019	-30
Barrie	1,046	2,292	119	252	3,444	##	1,298	5,736	342
Belleville	691	230	-67	0	0	-	691	230	-67
Brantford	421	264	-37	72	336	367	493	600	22
Calgary	5,805	7,980	37	9,132	8,388	-8	14,937	16,368	10
Edmonton	5,755	6,156	7	4,728	5,544	17	10,483	11,700	12
Greater Sudbury	134	1,382	##	0	204	##	134	1,586	##
Guelph	202	264	31	48	0	-100	250	264	6
Halifax	764	795	4	1,080	672	-38	1,844	1,467	-20
Hamilton	862	877	2	1,776	1,824	3	2,638	2,701	2
Kelowna	581	582	0	324	1,788	452	905	2,370	162
Kingston	157	117	-25	108	0	-100	265	117	-56
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	1,234	719	-42	1,044	3,300	216	2,278	4,019	76
Lethbridge	295	135	-54	1,188	72	-94	1,483	207	-86
London	1,670	1,504	-10	588	1,284	118	2,258	2,788	23
Moncton	189	286	51	24	888	##	213	1,174	451
Montréal	2,402	2,357	-2	13,704	21,122	54	16,106	23,479	46
Oshawa	597	1,287	116	372	792	113	969	2,079	115
Ottawa-Gatineau	2,704	3,285	21	8,916	13,428	51	11,620	16,713	44
Gatineau	200	1,124	462	4,572	5,484	20	4,772	6,608	38
Ottawa	2,504	2,161	-14	4,344	7,944	83	6,848	10,105	48
Peterborough	439	586	33	0	0	-	439	586	33
Québec	1,079	1,405	30	4,092	9,192	125	5,171	10,597	105
Regina	335	393	17	156	468	200	491	861	75
Saguenay	981	586	-40	216	240	11	1,197	826	-31
St. Catharines-Niagara	730	792	8	1,152	960	-17	1,882	1,752	-7
Saint John	352	439	25	0	0	-	352	439	25
St. John's	1,036	1,443	39	132	168	27	1,168	1,611	38
Saskatoon	1,152	1,050	-9	1,656	192	-88	2,808	1,242	-56
Sherbrooke	844	284	-66	1,200	888	-26	2,044	1,172	-43
Thunder Bay	96	90	-6	48	0	-100	144	90	-38
Toronto	9,355	8,337	-11	56,364	31,404	-44	65,719	39,741	-40
Trois-Rivières	111	390	251	900	72	-92	1,011	462	-54
Vancouver	3,731	3,394	-9	13,416	10,824	-19	17,147	14,218	-17
Victoria	644	725	13	4,404	732	-83	5,048	1,457	-71
Windsor	931	1,240	33	120	120	-	1,051	1,360	29
Winnipeg	1,804	961	-47	4,980	3,660	-27	6,784	4,621	-32

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