Housing starts for the nationwide Canadian market totaled 214,155 units in March, down 3.3% from 221,405 units in February.
According to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), housing starts were down 12.5% year-over-year in centers with a population of 10,000 or greater, with 14,924 units recorded in last month versus 17,052 in March 2024.
Among the nation’s three largest cities, Montreal posted a 138% year-over-year increase in actual housing starts in March while Vancouver recorded a 59% decrease and starts in Toronto fell 65%.
The decline in housing starts was viewed with surprise by economists who projected 242,500 starts for the month. The CMHC data also followed the release of the Fraser Institute’s new report “The Crisis in Housing Affordability: Population Growth and Housing Starts 1972–2024,” which found Canada’s population grew by a record 1.23 million new residents in 2023 almost entirely due to immigration – the total growth was more than double the pre-pandemic record set in 2019.
However, the report also noted that growth occurred without a commensurate increase in new homebuilding – construction only started on roughly 245,367 new housing units in 2024, down from a recent high of 271,198 starts in 2021. By 2023, Canada added 5.1 new residents for every housing unit started, which was the highest ratio over the study’s timeframe.
