Apartment Sector Boosts Ontario Starts

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - July 11, 2016) - Housing starts in the Ontario region were trending at 72,650 units in June, up from 67,182 units in May, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The trend is a six month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) of housing starts.

"For the first time since peaking in January, the Ontario residential construction trend moved higher. The increase in June was due solely to the more volatile apartment sector. Both apartment ownership and rental construction gained ground. Declining affordability, less choice in the apartment resale market and low rental vacancy rates continue to support apartment construction across the province", said Ted Tsiakopoulos, CMHC's Ontario Regional Economist.

CMHC uses the trend measure as a complement to the monthly SAAR of housing starts to account for considerable swings in monthly estimates and obtain a more complete picture of the state of the housing market. In some situations, analysing only SAAR data can be misleading in some markets, as they are largely driven by the multiples segment of the markets which can be quite variable from one month to the next.

The SAAR of total urban housing starts increased to 84,740 units in June, up from 66,935 units in May. Over half of Ontario urban centers posted increases in June. For the period ending June 2016, Ontario urban home starts are running 15 per cent higher versus the same period one year ago.

Preliminary Housing Starts data is also available in English and French at the following link: Preliminary Housing Starts Tables

As Canada's authority on housing, CMHC contributes to the stability of the housing market and financial system, provides support for Canadians in housing need, and offers objective housing research and information to Canadian governments, consumers and the housing industry.

For more information, visit our website at www.cmhc.ca or follow us on Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Additional data is available upon request.

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A table and a graph are available at the following address: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/1062130e.pdf