Canadian housing starts rose in April – CMHC

The annual pace of new home construction in April surpassed analysts' expectations

Canadian housing starts rose in April – CMHC

The annual pace of new home construction in Canada was up 8% in April compared with the previous month, the country’s national housing agency has revealed.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) said the seasonally adjusted annual rate of April housing starts was 267,330 units, up from 248,389 in March, with the annual rate of urban starts increasing by 10% to 245,324 units.

Multi-unit urban starts registered a 14% annual rate increase to 178,092, and the pace of single-detached urban starts was also up – rising 1% to 67,232.

The six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts, which came in at 253,226 units in March, rose to 257,846 units last month, while rural starts saw a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 22,006 units.

The overall seasonally adjusted annualized rate of housing starts surpassed analyst expectations, with forecasts having come in at 246,000 units ahead of the CMHC announcement.