Housing starts fall in Quebec and B.C.

March 22, 2022


Canada-wide housing starts reach 247,300, seasonally adjusted, in February 2022—up 8 per cent from January 2022. Four provinces saw starts decline, month-to-month, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp (CMHC), including two of the largest.
Starts rebounded by 41,000 to 98,800 units in Ontario but declined in Quebec where housing starts in February dipped by 18,700 to 47,000 units.
In the Atlantic Region starts were weighed down by Nova Scotia and New Brunswick—plunging by 4,100 homes to 5,700—lowest since October 2020.
Starts rose by 6,900 to 39,800 units in the Prairies. Alberta and Saskatchewan both registered higher readings for the month, while the pace of new construction was little changed in Manitoba.
In British Columbia, where benchmark homes are the highest in Canada, starts decreased by 4,000 to 31,300, seasonally adjusted, in February 2022 from a month earlier.
The B.C. slowdown started in January 2022, when total permit volume was 4.2 per cent lower than in January 2021. Residential permits in B.C. fell 25 per cent from December 2021 to $957.4 million in February 2022, reports the BC Central One credit union.
The average B.C. resale home price reached $1.324 million, up 24.6 per cent from a year earlier. While sales fell 20 per cent from February 2021 to 5,235 units, February 2022 was still the third-highest February on record and exceeded the 2011-20 February average by 36 per cent, according to BC Central data.