CMCH recently stated that the annual rate that is adjusted seasonally last month appears to be 193,032 units nationally. However, it went down in July to 202,338 units. The new home construction in Canada’s pace slowed down for the first time in the span of three months since July. Most of these were the result of the decrease in multi-unit projects started in the urban areas in the country, particularly in Calgary. This statement comes from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.
On the other hand, British Columbia seems to have shown an increase from June. However, other parts of the country has declines in new home construction. Aside from Calgary, the Greater area of Toronto and other cities of Prairie is included as well. Even though the federal agency that was based on Ottawa has already anticipated a slowdown, July’s pace that is adjusted seasonally (which is a projection of what can happen over a full year, after accounting for the typical variations that are related to the season) was below the estimated 195,000 units from the economists according to Thomson Reuters.
The annual rate in Calgary that is adjusted seasonally has plunged to 8,716 units in July as compared to the 19,146 from the previous month. This is due to the multi-family start’s pronounced decline as CMCH said. The actual new home construction went down to 43% percent. Thus, from 1,354 in July back in 2014 to 770 last month. It can be considered as a big drop to the six-month trend of the lower Calgary.
Saskatoon and Edmonton’s six-month trend has also experienced a decrease during the month of July. This goes against the six-month trend national that showed a raise to 185,586 units last month as compared to the units amounting to 184,035 in June.
Bob Dugan, the chief economist of CMHC said that the gains in the multiple starts has offset declines in the single starts for over the past 3 months. It has been said that the reason for the decline is due to more people renting apartments instead of a new home construction. Most of these apartments serves the homes for the senior.
The rate in Ontario fell as well from the 56,824 units in June to 49,047 units. However, some of the parts of the province have shown an increase – especially those parts that are outside of the area of Toronto (Greater Toronto Area). Ted Tsiakopoulos, the regional economist of CMHC has also release a statement regarding the topic that has been gaining the interest of professionals and the public. He said that for the second consecutive month, the trend in the activity of the residential renovations in Toronto has dipped. He said that this is largely due to the apartment sector.
The housing construction that is currently low in density can give us a glimpse or possibly indicate that the new market of the construction industry in the Toronto’s Greater Toronto’s Areas, as well as Western provinces such as British Columbia have a far ways to get yet and are considered a very low risk investment due to the posted growth and stability of specific Canadian sectors outlined above. It also suggests that that the economic fundamentals should continue in supporting the new home construction in the province.