The annual pace of Canadian housing starts dropped by 9% from May to June, according to new data from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC), adding the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts in June amounted to 241,672 units, down from 264,929 in May.
Non-seasonally adjusted housing starts were down year-over-year in two of Canada’s three major cities – Toronto down 60% and Vancouver down 55%. On the flip side, Montreal housing starts soared by 226% year-over-year due to a significant upswing in multi-unit activity. The actual number of housing starts in urban center across Canada was down 13% 20,509 units in June compared with 23,518 units one year earlier, while the seasonally adjusted annual rate of rural starts was estimated at 18,438.
“The higher interest rate environment appears to have caught up with some of Canada’s major centers as lower multi-unit starts, particularly in Vancouver and Toronto, drove both the (seasonally adjusted annual rate) and trend down in June,” said CMHC Chief Economist Bob Dugan. “While strong starts growth in June and the first half 2024 in Calgary, Edmonton, and Montreal mitigated some of these decreases, we expect continued downward starts pressure across Canada throughout 2024.”
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