Sun
Housing construction starts edged up last month to an annual seasonally adjusted pace of 217,400, thanks to increased apartment and condominium building activity, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reported Wednesday.
“Housing starts remained at a high level in September, with construction activity again staying above the 200,000 unit threshold,” said the Crown corporation’s chief economist Bob Dugan. “Higher starts of multiple family homes were behind the rise in new home construction activity in September.”
Urban starts were up 0.1 per cent, as a 5.5 per cent increase in apartment and condominium building activity more than offset a 8.1 per cent drop in starts on single-family homes.
Urban starts went up or remained unchanged in all regions of Canada, except Ontario, where activity fell 6.6 per cent, it reported. Starts increased in Atlantic Canada, in the Prairies, and British Columbia and remained stable in Quebec.
However, for the first nine months of 2008, actual starts in rural and urban areas combined were down an estimated 5.7 per cent, compared to the same period last year, with activity on key single-family homes being down 15.6 per cent offsetting a gain of 12.2 per cent in the more volatile multiple-unit sector.
While private sector analysts applauded the recent strength in overall housing starts, they warn it won’t last.
“On the whole, despite the surprising strength in starts over the past two months, we expect new residential construction activity to moderate in the coming months as tighter lending conditions and a weak domestic economy temper demand for housing,” said Millan Mulraine, economic strategist at TD Securities. “This slowdown, however, is expected to be both measured and orderly, and in no way do we expect the extent of the correction to be comparable to that currently taking place in the U.S.“
© The Vancouver Sun 2008