Canadian housing starts trend slightly lower in February

Ottawa, March 15, 2022

The trend in housing starts was 251,579 units in February, down from 253,864 units in January, 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; however, the six-month trend in housing starts declined slightly from January to February,” said Bob Dugan, CMHC's Chief Economist. “For SAAR housing starts in Canada’s urban areas, both single-detached and multi-unit starts increased in February. Among Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, Toronto was the only market to post growth in total SAAR starts in February, due to higher condo and 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 February was 247,256 units, an increase of 8% from 229,185 units in January. The SAAR of total urban starts increased by 10% to 222,563 units in February. Multi-unit urban starts increased by 13% to 161,912 units, while single-detached urban starts increased by 2% to 60,651 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 24,693 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 March data on April 19 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

February Housing Starts in Canada — All areas

Table 1: Housing Start Data in Centres 10,000 Population and Over
	Single-Detached			All Others			Total
	Feb. 2021	Feb. 2022	%	Feb. 2021	Feb. 2022	%	Feb. 2021	Feb. 2022	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.	9	21	133	1	11	##	10	32	220
P.E.I.	6	5	-17	10	10	-	16	15	-6
N.S.	111	76	-32	240	127	-47	351	203	-42
N.B.	16	20	25	53	2	-96	69	22	-68
Atlantic	142	122	-14	304	150	-51	446	272	-39
Qc	420	282	-33	3,717	2,222	-40	4,137	2,504	-39
Ont.	1,701	1,333	-22	3,535	5,715	62	5,236	7,048	35
Man.	181	152	-16	318	427	34	499	579	16
Sask.	91	99	9	115	152	32	206	251	22
Alta.	855	926	8	999	1,323	32	1,854	2,249	21
Prairies	1,127	1,177	4	1,432	1,902	33	2,559	3,079	20
B.C.	581	517	-11	2,710	1,983	-27	3,291	2,500	-24
Canada (10,000+)	3,971	3,431	-14	11,698	11,972	2	15,669	15,403	-2
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	28	30	7	131	84	-36	159	114	-28
Barrie	33	41	24	4	21	425	37	62	68
Belleville	14	18	29	2	0	-100	16	18	13
Brantford	33	24	-27	58	6	-90	91	30	-67
Calgary	343	398	16	299	761	155	642	1,159	81
Edmonton	409	422	3	558	394	-29	967	816	-16
Greater Sudbury	0	0	-	2	0	-100	2	0	-100
Guelph	11	10	-9	55	4	-93	66	14	-79
Halifax	70	42	-40	143	90	-37	213	132	-38
Hamilton	28	51	82	623	148	-76	651	199	-69
Kelowna	92	36	-61	163	27	-83	255	63	-75
Kingston	20	6	-70	5	9	80	25	15	-40
Kitchener – Cambridge – Waterloo	70	96	37	32	87	172	102	183	79
Lethbridge	23	21	-9	111	99	-11	134	120	-10
London	194	115	-41	520	49	-91	714	164	-77
Moncton	7	3	-57	2	2	-	9	5	-44
Montréal	130	102	-22	2,929	1,053	-64	3,059	1,155	-62
Oshawa	166	42	-75	176	31	-82	342	73	-79
Ottawa – Gatineau	227	134	-41	527	743	41	754	877	16
Gatineau	17	5	-71	79	381	382	96	386	302
Ottawa	210	129	-39	448	362	-19	658	491	-25
Peterborough	10	10	-	131	0	-100	141	10	-93
Québec	94	53	-44	142	341	140	236	394	67
Regina	17	23	35	86	13	-85	103	36	-65
Saguenay	3	13	333	4	18	350	7	31	343
St. Catharines – Niagara	59	46	-22	93	96	3	152	142	-7
Saint John	5	6	20	0	0	-	5	6	20
St. John's	8	20	150	0	11	##	8	31	288
Saskatoon	73	73	-	29	138	376	102	211	107
Sherbrooke	40	33	-18	140	100	-29	180	133	-26
Thunder Bay	0	0	-	0	4	##	0	4	##
Toronto	456	418	-8	1,149	4,697	309	1,605	5,115	219
Trois-Rivières	4	1	-75	11	75	##	15	76	407
Vancouver	206	247	20	2,011	1,118	-44	2,217	1,365	-38
Victoria	74	46	-38	83	367	342	157	413	163
Windsor	32	51	59	31	10	-68	63	61	-3
Winnipeg	152	130	-14	299	415	39	451	545	21
Total	3,131	2,761	-12	10,549	11,011	4	13,680	13,772	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
	Jan. 2022	Feb. 2022	%	Jan. 2022	Feb. 2022	%	Jan. 2022	Feb. 2022	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.	885	1,020	15	46	172	274	931	1,192	28
P.E.I.	209	240	15	84	120	43	293	360	23
N.S.	1,408	1,277	-9	5,440	1,540	-72	6,848	2,817	-59
N.B.	846	1,109	31	864	229	-73	1,710	1,338	-22
Qc	12,803	9,507	-26	52,874	37,488	-29	65,677	46,995	-28
Ont.	24,352	23,342	-4	34,816	75,427	117	59,168	98,769	67
Man.	2,209	2,222	1	5,124	5,124	-	7,333	7,346	0
Sask.	1,151	1,618	41	732	1,824	149	1,883	3,442	83
Alta.	8,634	12,880	49	15,034	16,101	7	23,668	28,981	22
B.C.	7,211	7,436	3	28,136	23,887	-15	35,347	31,323	-11
Canada (10,000+)	59,708	60,651	2	143,150	161,912	13	202,858	222,563	10
Canada (All Areas)	78,142	78,073	0	151,041	169,184	12	229,185	247,256	8
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	106	457	331	1,932	1,008	-48	2,038	1,465	-28
Barrie	1,137	983	-14	276	252	-9	1,413	1,235	-13
Belleville	309	650	110	72	0	-100	381	650	71
Brantford	1,074	436	-59	0	72	##	1,074	508	-53
Calgary	3,870	5,842	51	3,636	9,132	151	7,506	14,974	99
Edmonton	3,561	5,824	64	8,184	4,728	-42	11,745	10,552	-10
Greater Sudbury	171	123	-28	12	0	-100	183	123	-33
Guelph	237	192	-19	144	48	-67	381	240	-37
Halifax	691	760	10	5,064	1,080	-79	5,755	1,840	-68
Hamilton	583	854	46	1,020	1,776	74	1,603	2,630	64
Kelowna	806	567	-30	564	324	-43	1,370	891	-35
Kingston	1,050	144	-86	0	108	##	1,050	252	-76
Kitchener – Cambridge – Waterloo	422	1,220	189	948	1,044	10	1,370	2,264	65
Lethbridge	187	305	63	1,740	1,188	-32	1,927	1,493	-23
London	1,913	1,689	-12	3,192	588	-82	5,105	2,277	-55
Moncton	334	185	-45	240	24	-90	574	209	-64
Montréal	2,601	2,417	-7	24,086	13,725	-43	26,687	16,142	-40
Oshawa	966	473	-51	372	372	-	1,338	845	-37
Ottawa – Gatineau	3,781	2,782	-26	5,628	8,916	58	9,409	11,698	24
Gatineau	793	209	-74	2,652	4,572	72	3,445	4,781	39
Ottawa	2,988	2,573	-14	2,976	4,344	46	5,964	6,917	16
Peterborough	290	412	42	0	0	-	290	412	42
Québec	1,660	1,038	-37	6,540	4,092	-37	8,200	5,130	-37
Regina	389	330	-15	360	156	-57	749	486	-35
Saguenay	1,094	1,046	-4	528	216	-59	1,622	1,262	-22
St. Catharines – Niagara	685	720	5	1,380	1,152	-17	2,065	1,872	-9
Saint John	94	327	248	576	0	-100	670	327	-51
St. John's	729	924	27	24	132	450	753	1,056	40
Saskatoon	580	1,141	97	348	1,656	376	928	2,797	201
Sherbrooke	739	829	12	1,560	1,200	-23	2,299	2,029	-12
Thunder Bay	136	88	-35	0	48	##	136	136	-
Toronto	8,288	9,399	13	13,980	56,364	303	22,268	65,763	195
Trois-Rivières	436	114	-74	168	900	436	604	1,014	68
Vancouver	2,881	3,752	30	19,392	13,416	-31	22,273	17,168	-23
Victoria	817	645	-21	2,784	4,404	58	3,601	5,049	40
Windsor	765	811	6	804	120	-85	1,569	931	-41
Winnipeg	1,849	1,834	-1	4,452	4,980	12	6,301	6,814	8

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