Ottawa-Gatineau’s annual pace of housing starts rose 21 per cent last month from January, but have fallen compared to February last year, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says.
The national housing agency says the region’s monthly seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts in February was 7,387, up from 6,121 the previous month.
The annual pace of multi-unit urban starts jumped 70 per cent to 6,300. Meanwhile, the rate of single-detached urban starts fell 55 per cent to 1,087.
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Compared to 2023, housing starts are once again on the decline, something seen frequently in recent months.
Builders started work on 587 new housing units in Ottawa-Gatineau last month, a 45 per cent decrease from the 1,077 starts recorded in February last year.
Single-detached starts fell 50 per cent to 62 compared with the previous year, while multi-unit starts also fell, with a 45 per cent decrease to 525.
While housing starts are down compared to 2023, home sales have improved, according to the Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ Association.
Its most recent Ottawa New Home Market Report, shows 280 new homes were sold in the Ottawa area in February. That’s an increase of 75 per cent from the 160 sales recorded in the same period last year.
“It’s great to see new home sales continue to rise to start off the new year,” said Jason Burggraaf, executive director of the Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ Association. “Sustained growth in sales is critical if we want to build enough housing for our growing population. We need to get to 2020-2022 numbers, where we saw approximately 1,000 year-to-date sales.”
National housing starts in February increased 14% from January
The annual pace of housing starts in February climbed 14 per cent compared with January.
The national housing agency says the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts amounted to 253,468 units in February compared with 223,176 in January.
When looking at year-over-year figures, February’s actual housing starts were 10 per cent higher in Toronto and 82 per cent higher in Vancouver because of higher multi-unit starts.
Montreal’s actual starts dropped nine per cent with multi-unit and single-detached starts both falling.
The annual rate of rural starts was estimated at 14,835 units.
The six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates of housing starts in February was 245,665, up by 0.4 per cent from 244,638 in January.
– With additional reporting from The Canadian Press
