Housing starts declined in March

Ottawa, April 19, 2023

The standalone monthly seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of total housing starts for all areas in Canada declined 11% in March (213,865 units) compared to February (240,927 units) according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

The monthly SAAR of total urban starts (centres 10,000 population and over) declined 12%, with 192,545 units recorded in March. Multi-unit urban starts decreased 11% to 151,769 units, while single-detached urban starts decreased 16% to 40,776 units.

Among the Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal CMAs, only Vancouver recorded an increase in total SAAR housing starts in March, up 98% due to more than twice as many multi-unit starts compared to February. Montreal declined 12% and Toronto declined 26%.

The rural starts monthly SAAR estimate was 21,320 units.

The trend in housing starts was 240,669 units in March, down 6% from 254,658 units in February. The trend measure is a six-month moving average of the monthly SAAR of total housing starts for all areas in Canada.

“Despite the national decline in March, the SAAR of housing starts and the trend appear to be returning to pre-pandemic levels. With interest rates remaining high, it continues to be challenging for developers and homebuilders to get projects started. We will need to find innovative ways to deliver more housing supply to keep up with demand and ultimately improve affordability,” said Bob Dugan, CMHC's Chief Economist.

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 April housing starts data on May 15 at 8:15 AM ET.
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.
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.

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Additional information:

For information on this release:

To request an interview with a CMHC market analyst, contact:

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

March Housing Starts in Canada — All areas

Housing Start Data in Centres 10,000 Population and Over (Provinces)
	Single-Detached			All Others			Total
	Mar. 2022	Mar. 2023	%	Mar. 2022	Mar. 2023	%	Mar. 2022	Mar. 2023	%
N.-L.	29	10	-66	14	2	-86	43	12	-72
P.E.I.	20	7	-65	53	7	-87	73	14	-81
N.S.	60	92	53	75	139	85	135	231	71
N.B.	17	19	12	269	42	-84	286	61	-79
Atlantic	126	128	2	411	190	-54	537	318	-41
Qc	484	224	-54	3,497	1,575	-55	3,981	1,799	-55
Ont.	1,630	1,102	-32	4,584	4,690	2	6,214	5,792	-7
Man.	103	110	7	434	496	14	537	606	13
Sask.	104	56	-46	56	158	182	160	214	34
Alta.	1,079	698	-35	1,200	1,311	9	2,279	2,009	-12
Prairies	1,286	864	-33	1,690	1,965	16	2,976	2,829	-5
B.C.	646	399	-38	1,745	3,619	107	2,391	4,018	68
Canada (10,000+)	4,172	2,717	-35	11,927	12,039	1	16,099	14,756	-8

Data for 2022 based on 2016 Census Definitions and data for 2023 based on 2021 Census Definitions.

Source: CMHC

## not calculable / extreme value

Housing Start Data in Centres 10,000 Population and Over (Metropolitan Areas)
	Single-Detached			All Others			Total
	Mar. 2022	Mar. 2023	%	Mar. 2022	Mar. 2023	%	Mar. 2022	Mar. 2023	%
Abbotsford – Mission	42	20	-52	45	13	-71	87	33	-62
Barrie	65	45	-31	287	33	-89	352	78	-78
Belleville – Quinte West	9	3	-67	0	4	##	9	7	-22
Brantford	30	21	-30	28	33	18	58	54	-7
Calgary	543	341	-37	699	753	8	1,242	1,094	-12
Chilliwack	48	9	-81	174	0	-100	222	9	-96
Drummondville	33	8	-76	27	37	37	60	45	-25
Edmonton	454	282	-38	462	525	14	916	807	-12
Fredericton	6	7	17	195	4	-98	201	11	-95
Greater / Grand Sudbury	10	5	-50	17	4	-76	27	9	-67
Guelph	21	3	-86	0	255	##	21	258	##
Halifax	41	41	-	56	123	120	97	164	69
Hamilton	75	19	-75	152	46	-70	227	65	-71
Kamloops	19	3	-84	5	8	60	24	11	-54
Kelowna	52	62	19	149	207	39	201	269	34
Kingston	7	13	86	0	15	##	7	28	300
Kitchener – Cambridge – Waterloo	58	97	67	275	58	-79	333	155	-53
Lethbridge	7	5	-29	6	0	-100	13	5	-62
London	97	32	-67	107	164	53	204	196	-4
Moncton	3	1	-67	74	2	-97	77	3	-96
Montréal	141	61	-57	1,756	757	-57	1,897	818	-57
Nanaimo	37	13	-65	30	9	-70	67	22	-67
Oshawa	90	47	-48	66	32	-52	156	79	-49
Ottawa – Gatineau	199	129	-35	1,119	1,155	3	1,318	1,284	-3
Gatineau	64	30	-53	457	103	-77	521	133	-74
Ottawa	135	99	-27	662	1,052	59	797	1,151	44
Peterborough	29	17	-41	0	0	-	29	17	-41
Québec	107	44	-59	766	239	-69	873	283	-68
Red Deer	2	3	50	0	2	##	2	5	150
Regina	28	5	-82	39	70	79	67	75	12
Saguenay	14	3	-79	20	11	-45	34	14	-59
St. Catharines – Niagara	55	56	2	80	40	-50	135	96	-29
Saint John	7	5	-29	0	0	-	7	5	-29
St. John's	28	10	-64	14	2	-86	42	12	-71
Saskatoon	70	50	-29	16	61	281	86	111	29
Sherbrooke	22	12	-45	74	118	59	96	130	35
Thunder Bay	0	0	-	0	0	-	0	0	-
Toronto	546	402	-26	2,617	2,780	6	3,163	3,182	1
Trois-Rivières	13	6	-54	6	41	##	19	47	147
Vancouver	261	193	-26	902	2,823	213	1,163	3,016	159
Victoria	60	28	-53	61	297	387	121	325	169
Windsor	50	14	-72	10	34	240	60	48	-20
Winnipeg	78	97	24	305	436	43	383	533	39
Total	3,457	2,212	-36	10,639	11,191	5	14,096	13,403	-5

Data for 2022 based on 2016 Census Definitions and data for 2023 based on 2021 Census Definitions.

Source: CMHC

## not calculable / extreme value

Housing Start Data — Seasonally Adjusted at Annual Rates (SAAR) (Provinces — 10,000+)
	Single-Detached			All Others			Total
	Feb. 2023	Mar. 2023	%	Feb. 2023	Mar. 2023	%	Feb. 2023	Mar. 2023	%
N.L.	545	470	-14	3	26	##	548	496	-9
P.E.I.	403	288	-29	192	84	-56	595	372	-37
N.S.	1,481	1,866	26	2,465	1,735	-30	3,946	3,601	-9
N.B.	1,380	1,232	-11	144	573	298	1,524	1,805	18
Qc	5,677	3,556	-37	33,111	23,447	-29	38,788	27,003	-30
Ont.	19,261	16,343	-15	76,846	59,038	-23	96,107	75,381	-22
Man.	1,780	1,564	-12	6,612	5,952	-10	8,392	7,516	-10
Sask.	565	804	42	5,232	1,896	-64	5,797	2,700	-53
Alta.	12,305	9,839	-20	17,392	15,838	-9	29,697	25,677	-14
B.C.	5,359	4,814	-10	29,033	43,180	49	34,392	47,994	40
Canada (10,000+)	48,756	40,776	-16	171,030	151,769	-11	219,786	192,545	-12
Canada (All Areas)	64,021	56,468	-12	176,905	157,395	-11	240,927	213,865	-11

Data for 2022 based on 2016 Census Definitions and data for 2023 based on 2021 Census Definitions.

Source: CMHC

## not calculable / extreme value

Housing Start Data — Seasonally Adjusted at Annual Rates (SAAR) (Metropolitan Areas)
	Single-Detached			All Others			Total
	Feb. 2023	Mar. 2023	%	Feb. 2023	Mar. 2023	%	Feb. 2023	Mar. 2023	%
Abbotsford – Mission	272	227	-17	924	156	-83	1,196	383	-68
Barrie	889	1,121	26	1,728	396	-77	2,617	1,517	-42
Belleville – Quinte West	192	91	-53	348	48	-86	540	139	-74
Brantford	592	250	-58	636	396	-38	1,228	646	-47
Calgary	5,608	5,093	-9	10,164	9,036	-11	15,772	14,129	-10
Chilliwack	139	89	-36	139	0	-100	199	89	-55
Drummondville	93	85	-9	360	444	23	453	529	17
Edmonton	4,609	3,714	-19	6,492	6,300	-3	11,101	10,014	-10
Fredericton	528	420	-20	84	48	-43	612	468	-24
Greater / Grand Sudbury	7,651	215	-97	0	48	##	7,651	263	-97
Guelph	86	48	-44	4,068	3,060	-25	4,154	3,108	-25
Halifax	320	816	155	2,052	1,476	-28	2,372	2,292	-3
Hamilton	374	254	-32	864	552	-36	1,238	806	-35
Kamloops	46	46	-	12	96	##	58	142	145
Kelowna	278	657	136	5,460	2,484	-55	5,738	3,141	-45
Kingston	790	286	-64	240	180	-25	1,030	466	-55
Kitchener – Cambridge – Waterloo	1,079	1,204	12	3,840	696	-82	4,919	1,900	-61
Lethbridge	89	97	9	72	0	-100	161	97	-40
London	443	468	6	204	1,968	##	647	2,436	277
Moncton	185	124	-33	0	24	##	185	148	-20
Montréal	1,097	980	-11	10,286	9,075	-12	11,383	10,055	-12
Nanaimo	180	115	-36	1,260	108	-91	1,440	223	-85
Oshawa	413	547	32	336	384	14	749	931	24
Ottawa – Gatineau	3,079	1,849	-40	11,448	13,860	21	14,527	15,709	8
Gatineau	1,842	580	-69	6,288	1,236	-80	8,130	1,816	-78
Ottawa	1,237	1,269	3	5,160	12,624	145	6,397	13,893	117
Peterborough	160	262	64	0	0	-	160	262	64
Québec	541	612	13	5,964	2,868	-52	6,505	3,480	-47
Red Deer	64	59	-8	60	24	-60	124	83	-33
Regina	134	77	-43	2,040	840	-59	2,174	917	-58
Saguenay	685	121	-82	120	132	10	805	253	-69
St. Catharines – Niagara	1,253	907	-28	3,420	480	-86	4,673	1,387	-70
Saint John	275	248	-10	0	0	-	275	248	-10
St. John's	494	497	1	0	24	##	494	521	5
Saskatoon	373	657	76	2,868	732	-74	3,241	1,389	-57
Sherbrooke	186	165	-11	372	1,416	281	558	1,581	183
Thunder Bay	90	79	-12	0	0	-	90	79	-12
Toronto	7,695	5,516	-28	45,096	33,360	-26	52,791	38,876	-26
Trois-Rivières	310	168	-46	408	492	21	718	660	-8
Vancouver	2,968	2,485	-16	15,360	33,876	121	18,328	36,361	98
Victoria	423	340	-20	3,228	3,564	10	3,651	3,904	7
Windsor	307	375	22	2,364	408	-83	2,671	783	-71
Winnipeg	1,531	1,339	-13	6,084	5,232	-14	7,615	6,571	-14