June's results were the largest month-over-month increase for a decade
The annual pace of housing starts saw its largest monthly increase in a decade in June, with the commencement of work on new multi-unit projects contributing to a huge gain over May.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), Canada’s national housing agency, said the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts was 281,373 units last month, an increase from 200,018 in May, as housing start trends continued to chart an erratic path in 2023.
The pace of housing starts had plummeted between April and May after spiking the previous month, while a February jump of 13% cancelled out a slowdown to begin the year.
After monthly declines since November 2022, the trend in #housing starts rebounded in June with a 41% month-to-month increase.
— CMHC (@CMHC_ca) July 18, 2023
Despite the increase, the year-to-date starts were 8% lower than the same period in 2022.
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June’s figures were bolstered by a big increase in the annual pace of urban starts, which rose by 46% to 262,815 units. Multi-unit urban starts were up to 219,914, an increase of 59%, while single-detached urban homes came in at 42,901, or 3% higher than May.
Vancouver and Toronto both saw huge improvements in the pace of housing starts, with the former posting an annual rate 71% above the prior month and Toronto seeing its pace double compared with May.
The annual pace of rural starts was 18,558 units in June, with the six-month moving average of the annual pace of housing starts increasing from 229,520 units in May to 234,974 units in June.
