Canadian housing starts rose 2% year-over-year from January to September, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s latest monthly housing report.

Total actual housing housing starts reached 168,897 units in urban centres from January to September 2024, compared to 165,559 during the same period in 2023.

Multi-residential unit starts climbed to 136,811 from 134,099 a year earlier, dwarfing the total single-family home construction launches (32,086) that also rose 2% from their year-to-date 2023 total (31,460.)

The figures are based on actual housing starts. CMHC released seasonally adjusted figures that illustrated higher production.

“Growth in actual year-to-date housing starts has been driven by both higher multi-unit and single-detached units in Alberta, Quebec, and the Atlantic provinces,” said Kevin Hughes, CMHC’s deputy chief economist, noted.

“By contrast, year-to-date starts in Ontario and British Columbia have decreased across all housing types. Despite the increase in housing starts in September, we remain well below what is required to restore affordability in Canada’s urban centres.”

In all areas of Canada, the seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of housing starts rose 5% in September, totalling 223,808 units compared to 213,012 units in August. Despite this rise, the six-month moving average of the SAAR in all areas decreased slightly (1.3%) to 243,759 units in September from 246,972 in August .

Urban multi-unit housing starts increased 6% on a seasonally adjusted basis in September. However, challenges remain in regions like Ontario and B.C., where starts have declined compared to the previous year.

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