Province
Housing starts rose in November to the highest level in a year, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., although construction activity was still below expectations.
The seasonally adjusted annual rate of home construction reached 158,500 units in November, up from 157,400 units the previous month, CMHC said Tuesday.
Despite being at a year high, housing starts during the month were still below economists’ forecasts of between 159,500 and 160,000 units.
“The improvement in housing starts continued in November,” said Bob Dugan, CMHC’s chief economist.
“Despite a small decline in November’s multiple-home construction, overall starts numbers were up due to a solid increase in singles starts,” he added.
The annual rate of urban starts rose 0.7 per cent to 141,100 units in November, the federal housing agency said.
Urban multiple-unit construction fell to 71,300 units from 72,500 units in October, while single urban starts increased 3.4 per cent to 69,800 units.
Urban starts were up 10 per cent in Quebec, 8.2 per cent in the Prairies and 6.2 per cent in B.C.
But urban construction was down 8.3 per cent in Ontario and 9.8 per cent lower in Atlantic Canada.
Rural housing starts were mainly unchanged in November from the previous month’s total of 17,400 units.
“Over all, the modest up tick in Canadian residential starts underscores the cautious response of builders to the dramatic rebound in overall Canadian housing market activity,” said Millan Mulraine, economics strategist at TD Securities.
“Notwithstanding, with the Canadian economy finally emerging from the economic recession and labour market activity appearing to be on them end, we expect the recent pickup in Canadian housing demand to gain further traction, which will likely provide a further boost to residential building activity.”
© Copyright (c) The Province