Housing starts better than expected in July

OTTAWA — New housing construction in Canada rose more than expected last month, according to data released Tuesday.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said the annual rate of housing starts on a seasonally adjusted basis was 205,100 in July, up 4.3 per cent from June.

That beat the median forecast of 194,500 provided by economists polled by Bloomberg.

June’s numbers were revised down slightly to 196,600 from 197,400.

The gains seen in July were driven by the construction of multiple-housing units in all regions except Quebec. Multiple starts in urban areas were up 13 per cent, while there was a 7.8 per cent decline in starting single-homes in cities.

Overall, urban starts were up 4.7 per cent to a rate of 185,200. Rural starts were relatively unchanged at 19,900.

The rate in new urban housing projects surged by 33 per cent in British Columbia and 36.1 per cent in the Atlantic region. It saw smaller gains of 1.7 per cent in Ontario and 0.3 per cent in the Prairies, and was down 7.8 per cent in Quebec.

“Today’s report and the recent resilience of both permits and sales (suggest) housing continues to be one of the economy’s strongest sectors, although sentiment among purchasers obviously remains vulnerable to recent market turmoil,” CIBC World Markets economist Peter Buchanan said in commentary.