Lack of apartment projects pulls down housing starts in this Ontario region

Activity in single detached segment not enough to offset decline in overall starts

By Ephraim Vecina

13 Jun. 2018

The absence of new major apartment projects has dragged down housing starts in Ontario’s London-St. Thomas region compared to last year, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

While the number of single detached starts in the region went up by 1.42% year-over-year in May, multi-family starts experienced a drastic 54.74% decline in the same time frame.

So far in 2018, there have been only 307 starts for apartments, townhouses, and duplexes, less than half the total during the same period last year. None of the planned large apartment buildings in London started last month.

Overall starts considerably went down by 21.28% last month compared to May 2017. Year-to-date, housing starts fell by 35.29% compared to the January-May stretch last year.

However, while multi-family starts are not keeping up with 2017’s near-record-level pace, CMHC analyst Andrew Scott assured that “key support continues to come from the less volatile number of single-detached starts.”

“Strong spillover demand from a tight resale market has kept single-detached numbers in solid territory,” Scott told The London Free Press.

Activity in Ontario’s urban multi-family construction segment has declined sharply for the last 3 months.

“Residential construction has shown signs of slowing with the double whammy of tougher mortgage rules and rising mortgage rates, combined with fewer ready-to-build lots and permit delays,” according to Priscilla Thiagamoorthy of BMO Capital Markets.