Housing starts rose 10% year-over-year in Canada’s largest cities in March amid more signs of a residential-construction slowdown.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reported 16,398 actual housing starts in centres with populations of 10,000 or more, up from 14,935 units in March 2025. Year-to-date, starts reached 49,206 units, a 9% increase compared with the same period in 2025,, driven by stronger activity in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec.

However, the seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of total housing starts for all areas declined 6% to 235,852 units in March, down from 250,961 units in February. The six-month trend measure, which smooths monthly volatility, also decreased 2.9% to 248,378 units.

“March housing starts data point to a continued loss of momentum in housing construction, broadly in line with CMHC’s housing market outlook,” said Mathieu Laberge, CMHC’s chief economist and senior vice-president of housing Insights. While actual starts increased compared to a year ago, this largely reflects the exceptionally low level of construction activity in the first quarter of last year.

Among Canada’s largest census metropolitan areas, Montreal recorded a 26% year-over-year increase in actual housing starts, driven by multi-unit construction. Vancouver saw a 21% gain due to increases in both multi-unit and single-detached starts, while Toronto posted a 23% rise, led by multi-unit activity.

CMHC also introduced new quarterly data on non-market housing starts, covering units developed or operated by public, non-profit, co-operative and other community-based organizations. These figures will be reported across 18 census metropolitan areas and aim to provide additional insight into affordable and supportive housing supply.

“Monthly housing starts can be volatile and difficult to reconcile with conditions experienced by builders and developers on the ground,” said Laberge. “This is why we are providing new analysis this month on the relationship between building permits and housing starts, as well as the release of new data on non-market housing starts.”

The rural starts monthly SAAR estimate was 11,846 units.

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