SAAR housing starts at highest level since November 2021 in September

Ottawa, October 18, 2022

The standalone monthly SAAR of total housing starts for all areas in Canada was at the highest since November 2021 (305,889 units) last month, with 299,589 units, up 11% from August. The SAAR of total urban starts increased 12% to 276,142 units in September. Multi-unit urban starts increased 16% to 216,549 units, while single-detached urban starts were flat at 59,593 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 23,447 units.

“Both the six-month trend and monthly SAAR in housing starts were higher in September compared to August. September’s increase in monthly SAAR housing starts in Canada’s urban areas was driven by higher multi-unit starts. Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver recorded large increases in SAAR multi-unit starts, resulting in the overall increase for Canada. While single-detached units were up 85% in Vancouver, single-detached starts were flat in Toronto and Montreal. Housing starts activity remains elevated in Canada in 2022,” said Bob Dugan, CMHC's Chief Economist.

The trend in housing starts was 276,682 units in September, up 3% from 267,813 units in August, 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.

Key facts:

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 October data on November 16 at 8:15 AM ET.
Definitions and methodology to better understand the foundations of the Starts and Completions and Market Absorption surveys.

As a trusted source of housing information, CMHC provides unbiased housing-related data, research, and market information to help close knowledge gaps, and deepen understanding of complex housing issues to inform future policy decisions. Housing starts facilitate the analysis of monthly, quarterly and year-over-year activity in the new home market. The data we collect as part of our Starts and Completions and Market Absorption surveys helps us obtain a clearer picture of upcoming new housing supply and is used as part of our various housing reports.

For more information, follow us on Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

Information on this release:

We encourage journalists to contact CMHC Media Relations and arrange to speak to our market analysts regarding the housing starts in their respective Canadian Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs).

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

September Housing Starts in Canada — All areas

Housing Start Data in Centres 10,000 Population and Over (Provinces)
	Single-Detached			All Others			Total
	Sept. 2021	Sept. 2022	%	Sept. 2021	Sept. 2022	%	Sept. 2021	Sept. 2022	%
N.-L.	55	46	-16	14	8	-43	69	54	-22
P.E.I.	28	1	-96	7	0	-100	35	1	-97
N.S.	272	281	3	136	104	-24	408	385	-6
N.B.	106	133	25	100	310	210	206	443	115
Atlantic	461	461	-	257	422	64	718	883	23
Qc	765	537	-30	4,595	3,156	-31	5,360	3,693	-31
Ont.	2,090	2,068	-1	5,926	9,168	55	8,016	11,236	40
Man.	197	227	15	522	138	-74	719	365	-49
Sask.	99	104	5	446	119	-73	545	223	-59
Alta.	1,125	1,461	30	1,027	1,962	91	2,152	3,423	59
Prairies	1,421	1,792	26	1,995	2,219	11	3,416	4,011	17
B.C.	715	747	4	1,977	3,527	78	2,692	4,274	59
Canada (10,000+)	5,452	5,605	3	14,750	18,492	25	20,202	24,097	19

Data for 2021 and 2022 based on 2016 Census Definitions.

Source: CMHC Starts and Completion Survey, Market Absorption Survey

## not calculable / extreme value

Housing Start Data in Centres 10,000 Population and Over (Metropolitan Areas)
	Single-Detached			All Others			Total
	Sept. 2021	Sept. 2022	%	Sept. 2021	Sept. 2022	%	Sept. 2021	Sept. 2022	%
Abbotsford – Mission	36	43	19	94	125	33	130	168	29
Barrie	100	152	52	109	395	262	209	547	162
Belleville	29	27	-7	7	17	143	36	44	22
Brantford	10	51	410	0	46	##	10	97	##
Calgary	484	590	22	542	1,089	101	1,026	1,679	64
Edmonton	470	678	44	433	782	81	903	1,460	62
Greater Sudbury	25	10	-60	155	18	-88	180	28	-84
Guelph	16	6	-63	0	123	##	16	129	##
Halifax	172	80	-53	101	22	-78	273	102	-63
Hamilton	37	100	170	43	89	107	80	189	136
Kelowna	70	44	-37	128	208	63	198	252	27
Kingston	25	61	144	6	22	267	31	83	168
Kitchener – Cambridge – Waterloo	62	86	39	168	213	27	230	299	30
Lethbridge	18	19	6	9	3	-67	27	22	-19
London	195	61	-69	238	245	3	433	306	-29
Moncton	39	35	-10	27	214	##	66	249	277
Montréal	261	152	-42	2,652	1,962	-26	2,913	2,114	-27
Oshawa	111	87	-22	166	221	33	277	308	11
Ottawa – Gatineau	402	287	-29	998	1,728	73	1,400	2,015	44
Gatineau	88	33	-63	524	124	-76	612	157	-74
Ottawa	314	254	-19	474	1,604	238	788	1,858	136
Peterborough	18	50	178	0	6	##	18	56	211
Québec	72	55	-24	695	414	-40	767	469	-39
Regina	29	21	-28	51	59	16	80	80	-
Saguenay	4	18	350	16	24	50	20	42	110
St. Catharines – Niagara	143	95	-34	162	697	330	305	792	160
Saint John	32	28	-13	48	0	-100	80	28	-65
St. John's	46	34	-26	10	4	-60	56	38	-32
Saskatoon	59	77	31	392	45	-89	451	122	-73
Sherbrooke	42	30	-29	227	125	-45	269	155	-42
Thunder Bay	17	17	-	0	8	##	17	25	47
Toronto	494	499	1	4,118	4,931	20	4,612	5,430	18
Trois-Rivières	30	15	-50	120	62	-48	150	77	-49
Vancouver	289	419	45	925	2,293	148	1,214	2,712	123
Victoria	60	53	-12	356	217	-39	416	270	-35
Windsor	33	61	85	32	122	281	65	183	182
Winnipeg	163	188	15	499	95	-81	662	283	-57
Total	4,093	4,229	3	13,527	16,624	23	17,620	20,853	18

Data for 2021 and 2022 based on 2016 Census Definitions.

Source: CMHC Starts and Completion Survey, Market Absorption Survey

## not calculable / extreme value

Housing Start Data — Seasonally Adjusted at Annual Rates (SAAR) (Provinces — 10,000+)
	Single-Detached			All Others			Total
	August 2022	September 2022	%	August 2022	September 2022	%	August 2022	September 2022	%
N.L.	712	438	-38	233	79	-66	945	517	-45
P.E.I.	174	10	-94	588	0	-100	762	10	-99
N.S.	1,826	2,085	14	3,530	1,136	-68	5,356	3,221	-40
N.B.	1,272	1,153	-9	4,731	3,706	-22	6,003	4,859	-19
Qc	7,178	5,080	-29	40,663	34,736	-15	47,841	39,816	-17
Ont.	23,069	23,049	0	72,993	108,075	48	96,062	131,124	36
Man.	2,707	2,675	-1	3,540	1,656	-53	6,247	4,331	-31
Sask.	1,330	1,224	-8	3,840	1,428	-63	5,170	2,652	-49
Alta.	14,751	15,830	7	18,140	23,602	30	32,891	39,432	20
B.C.	6,805	8,049	18	38,261	42,131	10	45,066	50,180	11
Canada (10,000+)	59,824	59,593	0	186,519	216,549	16	246,343	276,142	12
Canada (All Areas)	77,525	76,539	-1	192,870	223,051	16	270,397	299,589	11

Data for 2021 and 2022 based on 2016 Census Definitions.

Source: CMHC Starts and Completion Survey, Market Absorption Survey

## not calculable / extreme value

Housing Start Data — Seasonally Adjusted at Annual Rates (SAAR) (Metropolitan Areas)
	Single-Detached			All Others			Total
	August 2022	September 2022	%	August 2022	September 2022	%	August 2022	September 2022	%
Abbotsford – Mission	442	420	-5	216	1,500	##	658	1,920	192
Barrie	1,252	1,393	11	816	4,740	481	2,068	6,133	197
Belleville	267	271	1	180	204	13	447	475	6
Brantford	654	635	-3	1,272	552	-57	1,926	1,187	-38
Calgary	5,814	6,399	10	8,064	13,068	62	13,878	19,467	40
Edmonton	6,716	7,460	11	6,396	9,384	47	13,112	16,844	28
Greater Sudbury	156	88	-44	432	216	-50	588	304	-48
Guelph	146	85	-42	468	1,476	215	614	1,561	154
Halifax	560	689	23	2,628	264	-90	3,188	953	-70
Hamilton	879	1,243	41	984	1,068	9	1,863	2,311	24
Kelowna	936	597	-36	6,672	2,496	-63	7,608	3,093	-59
Kingston	179	549	207	1,248	264	-79	1,427	813	-43
Kitchener – Cambridge – Waterloo	680	985	45	4,188	2,556	-39	4,868	3,541	-27
Lethbridge	248	225	-9	2,400	36	-99	2,648	261	-90
London	1,309	689	-47	516	2,940	470	1,825	3,629	99
Moncton	453	277	-39	3,396	2,568	-24	3,849	2,845	-26
Montréal	1,786	1,506	-16	15,392	23,456	52	17,178	24,962	45
Oshawa	1,381	957	-31	2,796	2,652	-5	4,177	3,609	-14
Ottawa – Gatineau	3,189	2,820	-12	12,672	20,736	64	15,861	23,556	49
Gatineau	903	222	-75	96	1,488	##	999	1,710	71
Ottawa	2,286	2,598	14	12,576	19,248	53	14,862	21,846	47
Peterborough	380	720	89	48	72	50	428	792	85
Québec	905	657	-27	8,844	4,968	-44	9,749	5,625	-42
Regina	240	292	22	492	708	44	732	1,000	37
Saguenay	304	262	-14	480	288	-40	784	550	-30
St. Catharines – Niagara	1,132	1,335	18	1,380	8,364	##	2,512	9,699	286
Saint John	255	243	-5	0	0	-	255	243	-5
St. John's	568	353	-38	168	48	-71	736	401	-46
Saskatoon	1,036	965	-7	3,228	540	-83	4,264	1,505	-65
Sherbrooke	563	331	-41	1,032	1,500	45	1,595	1,831	15
Thunder Bay	129	113	-12	0	96	##	129	209	62
Toronto	5,834	5,972	2	46,152	59,172	28	51,986	65,144	25
Trois-Rivières	418	162	-61	552	744	35	970	906	-7
Vancouver	2,440	4,508	85	20,748	27,516	33	23,188	32,024	38
Victoria	783	684	-13	3,684	2,604	-29	4,467	3,288	-26
Windsor	751	698	-7	2,004	1,464	-27	2,755	2,162	-22
Winnipeg	2,255	2,248	0	2,712	1,140	-58	4,967	3,388	-32