VANCOUVER — Housing starts in the Vancouver region are trending at high levels while home construction in cities across the province remains stable.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says starts in the Lower Mainland reached about 21,650 units in November, up about 60 units from the previous month.
CMHC spokesman Richard Sam says the building has been spurred along by relatively low levels of newly completed and unsold condos.
Surrey and Vancouver account for just under half of all new home construction so far this year.
Urban areas across the country have seen about 30,500 housing starts, including a bump in townhouse starts and a slight drop in apartment construction.
Single-detached and semi-detached homes remained relatively unchanged.
CMHC SAYS ANNUAL PACE OF HOUSING STARTS PICKS UP IN NOVEMBER TO 211,916
The Canadian housing market continued to show signs of strength as the annual pace of housing starts in November came in faster than expected.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said Tuesday the annual pace increased to 211,916 units in November compared with 197,712 units in October.
That compared with the 197,300 that had been expected by economists, according to Thomson Reuters.
"Canadian homebuilding activity remains robust, and accelerating momentum through the latter stages of 2015 will likely catch the eye of policy-makers currently stewing over the strength in real estate," Bank of Montreal senior economist Robert Kavcic said.
Overall, the rate of urban starts increased by 7.7 per cent in November to 195,121, boosted by a gain in multi-unit starts that increased by 13.2 per cent to 137,898. Single-detached urban starts fell 3.6 per cent to 57,223 units.
The pace of urban starts increased in the Prairies, Ontario and Atlantic Canada, but fell in British Columbia and Quebec.
CMHC chief economist Bob Dugan noted that rising single home prices continue to support demand for multi-home starts.
"However, inventory management is necessary to make sure that these units do not remain unsold upon completion," Dugan said.
Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 16,795 units.
The strength of the Canadian housing market is being closely watched.
New home construction in Canada has picked up strength in the second half of this year after a weak start to 2015.
"Looking forward, relatively tight housing market conditions in Ontario and B.C. may continue to encourage a relatively lofty pace of new home construction at least through the first half of 2016," TD Bank economist Diana Petramala said.
"However, the combination of weaker economic growth and rising longer-term borrowing rates in Canada will likely pull some of the steam out of housing activity overall next year."
The six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates for housing starts across the country was 208,401 units in November, up from 206,125 in October.
The report on housing starts came as Statistics Canada said municipalities issued $7.7 billion worth of building permits in October, up 9.1 per cent from September and the first increase in three months.
The value of residential building permits totalled $4.8 billion in October, up 15.5 per cent from September, while permits for non-residential buildings slipped 0.2 per cent lower to $2.9 billion in October.
