Canadian housing starts trend higher in July

Ottawa, August 16, 2022

The trend in housing starts was 264,426 units in July, up from 257,862 units in June, 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.

“The monthly SAAR and trend were higher in July compared to June nationally, as historically elevated levels of housing starts activity continue in Canada, which have been well above 200,000 units since 2020,” said Aled Ab Iorwerth, CMHC's Deputy Chief Economist. “Monthly SAAR housing starts in Canada’s urban areas declined in July, driven by lower single-detached starts. However, Vancouver and Toronto both registered much stronger declines in multi-unit starts than in single-detached starts, while Montreal saw similarly large declines in both unit types.”

The standalone monthly SAAR of total housing starts for all areas in Canada in July was 275,329 units, an increase of 1.1% from June. The SAAR of total urban starts decreased by 0.8% to 254,371 units in July. Multi-unit urban starts declined by 0.3% to 195,987 units, while single-detached urban starts decreased by 2.3% to 58,384 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 20,958 units.

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 August data on September 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.

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Associated links:

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

July Housing Starts in Canada — All areas

Table 1: Housing Start Data in Centres 10,000 Population and Over
	Single-Detached			All Others			Total
	July 2021	July 2022	%	July 2021	July 2022	%	July 2021	July 2022	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.	43	73	70	24	4	-83	67	77	15
P.E.I.	59	27	-54	75	16	-79	134	43	-68
N.S.	155	142	-8	256	479	87	411	621	51
N.B.	145	124	-14	285	338	19	430	462	7
Atlantic	402	366	-9	640	837	31	1,042	1,203	15
Qc	828	729	-12	4,152	3,833	-8	4,980	4,562	-8
Ont.	2,623	2,216	-16	5,561	5,980	8	8,184	8,196	0
Man.	273	269	-1	280	304	9	553	573	4
Sask.	125	143	14	77	131	70	202	274	36
Alta.	1,301	1,378	6	1,404	2,176	55	2,705	3,554	31
Prairies	1,699	1,790	5	1,761	2,611	48	3,460	4,401	27
B.C.	702	671	-4	3,254	3,196	-2	3,956	3,867	-2
Canada (10,000+)	6,254	5,772	-8	15,368	16,457	7	21,622	22,229	3
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	20	26	30	19	130	##	39	156	300
Barrie	91	188	107	235	141	-40	326	329	1
Belleville	42	20	-52	4	5	25	46	25	-46
Brantford	9	71	##	0	110	##	9	181	##
Calgary	504	523	4	900	1,356	51	1,404	1,879	34
Edmonton	583	625	7	434	752	73	1,017	1,377	35
Greater Sudbury	28	8	-71	22	22	-	50	30	-40
Guelph	18	12	-33	157	17	-89	175	29	-83
Halifax	76	78	3	224	417	86	300	495	65
Hamilton	68	92	35	177	103	-42	245	195	-20
Kelowna	80	52	-35	375	40	-89	455	92	-80
Kingston	39	49	26	16	22	38	55	71	29
Kitchener – Cambridge – Waterloo	61	93	52	427	305	-29	488	398	-18
Lethbridge	53	30	-43	23	9	-61	76	39	-49
London	238	102	-57	397	204	-49	635	306	-52
Moncton	48	49	2	105	185	76	153	234	53
Montréal	271	165	-39	2,339	1,944	-17	2,610	2,109	-19
Oshawa	129	103	-20	160	234	46	289	337	17
Ottawa – Gatineau	408	306	-25	387	1,824	371	795	2,130	168
Gatineau	110	70	-36	38	276	##	148	346	134
Ottawa	298	236	-21	349	1,548	344	647	1,784	176
Peterborough	60	41	-32	0	0	-	60	41	-32
Québec	103	102	-1	1,303	521	-60	1,406	623	-56
Regina	31	39	26	24	44	83	55	83	51
Saguenay	20	36	80	16	12	-25	36	48	33
St. Catharines – Niagara	132	130	-2	72	26	-64	204	156	-24
Saint John	30	28	-7	88	5	-94	118	33	-72
St. John's	35	68	94	20	3	-85	55	71	29
Saskatoon	82	95	16	49	77	57	131	172	31
Sherbrooke	46	42	-9	74	70	-5	120	112	-7
Thunder Bay	19	23	21	60	19	-68	79	42	-47
Toronto	861	533	-38	3,194	2,882	-10	4,055	3,415	-16
Trois-Rivières	22	17	-23	88	66	-25	110	83	-25
Vancouver	257	276	7	1,818	1,700	-6	2,075	1,976	-5
Victoria	80	107	34	537	861	60	617	968	57
Windsor	57	68	19	36	90	150	93	158	70
Winnipeg	233	228	-2	211	243	15	444	471	6
Total	4,834	4,425	-8	13,991	14,439	3	18,825	18,864	0

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
	June 2022	July 2022	%	June 2022	July 2022	%	June 2022	July 2022	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.	677	812	20	55	48	-13	732	860	17
P.E.I.	146	217	49	624	192	-69	770	409	-47
N.S.	1,863	1,571	-16	3,430	5,732	67	5,293	7,303	38
N.B.	988	899	-9	4,204	3,958	-6	5,192	4,857	-6
Qc	7,281	7,120	-2	40,034	45,689	14	47,315	52,809	12
Ont.	21,274	21,429	1	70,914	70,693	0	92,188	92,122	0
Man.	2,515	2,594	3	4,956	3,648	-26	7,471	6,242	-16
Sask.	1,476	1,475	0	5,160	1,572	-70	6,636	3,047	-54
Alta.	16,661	15,104	-9	21,225	26,091	23	37,886	41,195	9
B.C.	6,853	7,163	5	45,993	38,364	-17	52,846	45,527	-14
Canada (10,000+)	59,734	58,384	-2	196,595	195,987	0	256,329	254,371	-1
Canada (All Areas)	71,465	72,578	2	200,918	202,749	1	272,381	275,329	1
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	435	391	-10	1,524	1,560	2	1,959	1,951	0
Barrie	1,261	1,621	29	2,364	1,692	-28	3,625	3,313	-9
Belleville	332	195	-41	96	60	-38	428	255	-40
Brantford	597	805	35	1,944	1,320	-32	2,541	2,125	-16
Calgary	6,234	6,207	0	15,984	16,272	2	22,218	22,479	1
Edmonton	8,018	6,931	-14	4,104	9,024	120	12,122	15,955	32
Greater Sudbury	106	55	-48	48	264	450	154	319	107
Guelph	257	136	-47	660	204	-69	917	340	-63
Halifax	1,078	861	-20	3,252	5,004	54	4,330	5,865	35
Hamilton	882	1,076	22	3,684	1,236	-66	4,566	2,312	-49
Kelowna	658	633	-4	7,884	480	-94	8,542	1,113	-87
Kingston	296	460	55	312	264	-15	608	724	19
Kitchener – Cambridge – Waterloo	1,951	1,225	-37	4,512	3,660	-19	6,463	4,885	-24
Lethbridge	350	273	-22	84	108	29	434	381	-12
London	1,831	897	-51	960	2,448	155	2,791	3,345	20
Moncton	294	346	18	2,748	2,220	-19	3,042	2,566	-16
Montréal	2,594	1,694	-35	33,872	23,239	-31	36,466	24,933	-32
Oshawa	1,116	1,160	4	2,460	2,808	14	3,576	3,968	11
Ottawa – Gatineau	2,973	2,999	1	7,668	21,888	185	10,641	24,887	134
Gatineau	577	679	18	1,260	3,312	163	1,837	3,991	117
Ottawa	2,396	2,320	-3	6,408	18,576	190	8,804	20,896	137
Peterborough	411	314	-24	0	0	-	411	314	-24
Québec	828	962	16	7,080	6,252	-12	7,908	7,214	-9
Regina	405	459	13	540	528	-2	945	987	4
Saguenay	160	309	93	432	144	-67	592	453	-23
St. Catharines – Niagara	1,149	1,167	2	480	312	-35	1,629	1,479	-9
Saint John	288	248	-14	24	60	150	312	308	-1
St. John's	509	773	52	48	36	-25	557	809	45
Saskatoon	858	944	10	4,608	924	-80	5,466	1,868	-66
Sherbrooke	324	465	44	804	840	4	1,128	1,305	16
Thunder Bay	106	155	46	480	228	-53	586	383	-35
Toronto	4,565	4,521	-1	45,360	34,584	-24	49,925	39,105	-22
Trois-Rivières	286	204	-29	1,164	792	-32	1,450	996	-31
Vancouver	3,043	2,918	-4	29,352	20,400	-30	32,395	23,318	-28
Victoria	416	1,021	145	2,244	10,332	360	2,660	11,353	327
Windsor	576	679	18	792	1,080	36	1,368	1,759	29
Winnipeg	2,188	2,211	1	3,828	2,916	-24	6,016	5,127	-15

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