Pace of housing starts jumps 40% in June as monthly trend turns positive

Largest month-to-month gain in 10 years

The six-month trend in housing starts turned positive in June for the first time since November 2022 after the pace of building posted its largest month-to-month gain in 10 years.

The trend stood at 234,974 units per month in June, data from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. showed, a 2.4 per cent increase from 229,520 units in May.

The national housing agency said the seasonally adjusted rate of total housing starts for all areas in Canada jumped by 41 per cent in June to 281,373 units from 200,018 units in May.

Actual total housing starts jumped by more than 7,000 units to 23,518 from 15,889 in May, largely due to an increase in multi-unit starts, but remained slightly below last year’s level.

CMHC chief economist Bob Dugan noted that despite the large increase in June, total year-to-date housing starts for the first half of the year were eight per cent lower than they were over the same period last year.

“The high interest rate environment continues to challenge housing starts through increasing borrowing costs,” Dugan said in a press release.

The monthly seasonally adjusted rate of total urban starts increased 46 per cent, with 262,815 units recorded in June. Multi-unit urban starts increased 59 per cent to 219,914 units, while single-detached urban starts increased three per cent to 42,901 units, CMHC said.

Vancouver and Toronto areas recorded significant hikes in the rate of seasonally adjusted housing starts in June, with Vancouver up 71 per cent and Toronto doubling.