Canadian Housing Starts Activity Diverged Regionally in April

Ottawa, May 8, 2020

CMHC’s monthly Starts and Completions Survey (SCS) for April was conducted in each province with the exception of Québec, following the introduction of pandemic measures in the province in late March. Residential construction in Québec resumed on April 20. We will resume the SCS in Québec in May. This press release includes national housing starts totals without Québec in order to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic where the SCS survey was conducted.

The trend in housing starts was 199,589 units in April 2020, down from 204,899 units in March 2020. Excluding Québec, the trend was 155,995 units in April 2020, up from 153,463 units in March 2020. This trend measure is a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) of housing starts.

“Outside of Québec, the national trend in housing starts increased in April, despite the impact of COVID-19 containment measures.” said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. “This reflects strong growth in multi-family starts in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. We expect these provinces to register declines in the near term.”

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 they are largely driven by the multi-unit segment of the market which can vary significantly from one month to the next.

The standalone monthly SAAR of housing starts for all areas in Canada excluding Québec saw an increase of 10.8% in April from March. The SAAR of urban starts increased by 12.4% in April. Multiple urban starts increased by 35.7% while single-detached urban starts decreased by 27.1%.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 7,285 units excluding Québec.

Preliminary Housing Starts data are also available in English and French through our website and through CMHC’s Housing Market Information Portal. Our analysts are also available to provide further insight into their respective markets.

Like many other government organizations, businesses and individuals, we are closely following developments around COVID-19. The monthly release of our Preliminary Housing Starts data will continue as planned. CMHC will report any impact on our ability to collect housing data.

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.

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

Information on this release:

Angelina Ritacco
Media Relations, CMHC
416-218-3320
aritacco@cmhc-schl.gc.ca

Table 1: Preliminary Housing Start Data in Centres 10,000 Population and Over
	Single-Detached			All Others			Total
	April 2019	April 2020	%	April 2019	April 2020	%	April 2019	April 2020	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.	12	11	-8	1	0	-100	13	11	-15
P.E.I.	12	12	-	8	36	350	20	48	140
N.S.	83	106	28	159	37	-77	242	143	-41
N.B.	16	32	100	82	94	15	98	126	29
Atlantic	123	161	31	250	167	-33	373	328	-12
Qc	578	0	-100	3,581	0	-100	4,159	0	-100
Ont.	1,157	1,221	6	5,519	6,201	12	6,676	7,422	11
Man.	183	153	-16	307	377	23	490	530	8
Sask.	46	64	39	50	116	132	96	180	88
Alta.	725	650	-10	1,335	1,296	-3	2,060	1,946	-6
Prairies	954	867	-9	1,692	1,789	6	2,646	2,656	0
B.C.	752	606	-19	3,560	1,753	-51	4,312	2,359	-45
Canada (10,000+)	3,564	2,855	-20	14,602	9,910	-32	18,166	12,765	-30
Canada (10,000+ excluding Quebec)	2,986	2,855	-4	11,021	9,910	-10	14,007	12,765	-9
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	27	30	11	56	9	-84	83	39	-53
Barrie	3	23	##	48	11	-77	51	34	-33
Belleville	28	52	86	6	4	-33	34	56	65
Brantford	11	24	118	25	137	448	36	161	347
Calgary	254	241	-5	701	334	-52	955	575	-40
Edmonton	323	310	-4	546	880	61	869	1,190	37
Greater Sudbury	3	6	100	0	2	##	3	8	167
Guelph	15	17	13	8	0	-100	23	17	-26
Halifax	42	75	79	126	10	-92	168	85	-49
Hamilton	31	27	-13	430	43	-90	461	70	-85
Kelowna	41	36	-12	32	18	-44	73	54	-26
Kingston	19	28	47	26	13	-50	45	41	-9
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	82	50	-39	1,087	40	-96	1,169	90	-92
Lethbridge	31	12	-61	8	9	13	39	21	-46
London	88	142	61	348	145	-58	436	287	-34
Moncton	7	12	71	78	84	8	85	96	13
Montréal	242	0	-100	2,336	0	-100	2,578	0	-100
Oshawa	28	54	93	6	41	##	34	95	179
Ottawa-Gatineau	270	223	-17	628	613	-2	898	836	-7
Gatineau	43	0	-100	365	0	-100	408	0	-100
Ottawa	227	223	-2	263	613	133	490	836	71
Peterborough	17	17	-	15	28	87	32	45	41
Québec	64	0	-100	288	0	-100	352	0	-100
Regina	10	19	90	25	61	144	35	80	129
Saguenay	10	0	-100	12	0	-100	22	0	-100
St. Catharines-Niagara	109	86	-21	209	39	-81	318	125	-61
Saint John	5	12	140	0	0	-	5	12	140
St. John's	7	7	-	1	0	-100	8	7	-13
Saskatoon	29	38	31	22	48	118	51	86	69
Sherbrooke	24	0	-100	100	0	-100	124	0	-100
Thunder Bay	1	0	-100	0	0	-	1	0	-100
Toronto	234	182	-22	2,920	4,880	67	3,154	5,062	60
Trois-Rivières	23	0	-100	39	0	-100	62	0	-100
Vancouver	348	284	-18	2,524	1,001	-60	2,872	1,285	-55
Victoria	55	52	-5	395	415	5	450	467	4
Windsor	44	39	-11	24	30	25	68	69	1
Winnipeg	158	134	-15	286	347	21	444	481	8
Total	2,683	2,232	-17	13,355	9,242	-31	16,038	11,474	-28
Total (excluding Quebec Metro Areas)	2,277	2,232	-2	10,215	9,242	-10	12,492	11,474	-8

Data based on 2016 Census Definitions.
Source: Market Analysis Centre, CMHC
## not calculable / extreme value

Table 2: Preliminary Housing Start Data — Seasonally Adjusted at Annual Rates (SAAR)
	Single-Detached			All Others			Total
	March 2020	April 2020	%	March 2020	April 2020	%	March 2020	April 2020	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.	275	302	10	49	3	-94	324	305	-6
P.E.I.	178	179	1	144	432	200	322	611	90
N.S.	1,760	2,005	14	719	450	-37	2,479	2,455	-1
N.B.	1,694	1,084	-36	1,215	1,200	-1	2,909	2,284	-21
Qc	6,306	0	-100	33,947	0	-100	40,253	0	-100
Ont.	24,397	17,478	-28	41,669	76,150	83	66,066	93,628	42
Man.	1,906	1,824	-4	2,976	4,524	52	4,882	6,348	30
Sask.	1,087	1,078	-1	576	1,392	142	1,663	2,470	49
Alta.	13,743	7,595	-45	18,415	15,667	-15	32,158	23,262	-28
B.C.	7,449	6,736	-10	23,297	21,031	-10	30,746	27,767	-10
Canada (10,000+)	58,795	38,281	-35	123,007	120,849	-2	181,802	159,130	-12
Canada (All Areas)	69,247	47,031	-32	126,170	124,235	-2	195,420	171,265	-12
Canada (10,000+ excluding Quebec)	52,489	38,281	-27	89,060	120,849	36	141,549	159,130	12
Canada (All Areas excluding Quebec)	59,441	43,956	-26	90,780	122,460	35	150,224	166,415	11
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	367	356	-3	312	108	-65	679	464	-32
Barrie	835	958	15	60	132	120	895	1,090	22
Belleville	562	658	17	0	48	##	562	706	26
Brantford	596	465	-22	216	1,644	##	812	2,109	160
Calgary	5,866	2,767	-53	6,816	4,008	-41	12,682	6,775	-47
Edmonton	5,384	3,812	-29	10,356	10,560	2	15,740	14,372	-9
Greater Sudbury	126	202	60	48	24	-50	174	226	30
Guelph	219	255	16	1,236	0	-100	1,455	255	-82
Halifax	1,203	1,413	17	120	120	-	1,323	1,533	16
Hamilton	379	357	-6	1,044	516	-51	1,423	873	-39
Kelowna	459	360	-22	1,032	216	-79	1,491	576	-61
Kingston	427	381	-11	84	156	86	511	537	5
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	800	583	-27	4,512	480	-89	5,312	1,063	-80
Lethbridge	440	188	-57	48	108	125	488	296	-39
London	1,916	1,802	-6	2,484	1,740	-30	4,400	3,542	-20
Moncton	244	346	42	552	1,008	83	796	1,354	70
Montréal	2,274	0	-100	15,838	0	-100	18,112		-100
Oshawa	720	756	5	732	492	-33	1,452	1,248	-14
Ottawa-Gatineau	3,725	3,142	-16	5,076	7,356	45	8,801	10,498	19
Gatineau	342	0	-100	1,080	0	-100	1,422		-100
Ottawa	3,383	3,142	-7	3,996	7,356	84	7,379	10,498	42
Peterborough	280	187	-33	1,464	336	-77	1,744	523	-70
Québec	777	0	-100	4,728	0	-100	5,505	0	-100
Regina	239	329	38	24	732	##	263	1,061	303
Saguenay	2	0	-100	0	0	-	2		-100
St. Catharines-Niagara	1,114	964	-13	528	468	-11	1,642	1,432	-13
Saint John	338	255	-25	504	0	-100	842	255	-70
St. John's	195	197	1	12	0	-100	207	197	-5
Saskatoon	771	633	-18	492	576	17	1,263	1,209	-4
Sherbrooke	314	0	-100	3,120	0	-100	3,434		-100
Thunder Bay	3,648	9	-100	0	0	-	3,648	9	-100
Toronto	6,780	2,387	-65	18,360	58,560	219	25,140	60,947	142
Trois-Rivières	109	0	-100	96	0	-100	205		-100
Vancouver	3,161	3,190	1	18,084	12,012	-34	21,245	15,202	-28
Victoria	642	585	-9	552	4,980	##	1,194	5,565	366
Windsor	1,179	415	-65	1,284	360	-72	2,463	775	-69
Winnipeg	1,560	1,526	-2	2,964	4,164	40	4,524	5,690	26