Housing starts in the city of Ottawa trended down about 500 units, at 6,226 in November, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation said Monday.
While the drop was blamed on a decline in single-detached home starts, senior CMHC analyst Sandra Perez Torres pointed out the November numbers were still 12 per cent higher than the five-year November average.
That’s because of new apartment construction, she said.
“Factors such as robust immigration numbers and healthy empty nesters’ demand for rentals are prompting rental construction,” said Ms. Perez Torres.
The CMHC said the most starts in the month came in Kanata, followed by Gloucester, West Carleton, Clarence-Rockland, and Russell.
Across the country the pace of housing construction starts increased in November, mostly because of multiple-unit projects in urban areas.
The CMHC said British Columbia led the country in growth in housing starts, followed by Quebec, Ontario and Atlantic Canada.
There was a decline in urban starts in the Prairie region.
CMHC said the national rate of housing starts increased to 195,620 units last month on a seasonally adjusted basis from 183,659 in October.
The CMHC figures were in line with estimates from Thomson Reuters.
with files from the Canadian Press
