Housing Construction Slows Across Canada + MORE Jun 8th

OTTAWA — Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says the pace of housing starts slowed last month compared with April.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate for May came in at 188,570 units for the month, down from 191,388 in April.

The six-month moving average of the seasonally adjusted annual rate was 191,000 in May compared with 194,950 in April.

The pace of urban starts slowed by 2.5 per cent in May to 170,432 units as multiple-unit starts fell 5.7 per cent to 110,834 and single-detached starts increased 4.2 per cent to 59,598.

Condo construction in Toronto. (Photo: Michael Mahovlich/Getty Images)

The annual pace of urban starts fell in British Columbia and the Prairies, but increased in Ontario, Atlantic Canada, and Quebec.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 18,138 units.

Meanwhile, Statistics Canada says the value of building permits issued by municipalities fell 0.3 per cent to $6.9 billion in April, the second consecutive monthly move lower.

The agency noted the drop was due to lower construction intentions in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia…

I had a chat with Canada Guaranty CEO Andy Charles today. Like most industry leaders, he’s concerned with maintaining stability in Canada’s high-value housing markets. As a mortgage default insurer, Charles knows a thing or two about risk mitigation. So we asked him for his take on raising minimum down payments in order to create a risk buffer and slow real estate valuations. He made three points of note: Regulatory changes over the last several years have made the first-time homebuyer a modest player in the overall housing market:“The changes made to the high-ratio mortgages (first-time homebuyers) the past several years (reduced amortizations, READ MORE