Canadian home builders put a dent in the housing crisis supply level in April, with a 30% increase over March for new home starts, a much bigger jump than expected, according to Canadian Mortgage Professional (CMP). A report from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) showed the seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR) of starts hit 278,606 units in April, surpassing economists’ expectations of 227,500 starts. The SAAR is an expectation of the total number of starts for 2025, based on current activity. “For March, the SAAR was revised to 214,205 units, meaning April was the first month of the year when housing starts increased,” says CMP. “In January, the six-month trend in housing starts was 239,322 units, falling to 229,030 in February. Metropolitan areas with populations of 10,000 or greater saw actual housing starts increase 17% year-over-year, the highest actual housing starts for April on record, according to CMHC. Starts in Ontario and BC were down compared with the same time last year, although Quebec and the Prairie provinces posted a significant increase. Montreal saw actual housing starts increase by 64%, mainly due to multi-unit starts, while Vancouver recorded a milder increase of 6%. .“In Toronto, housing starts plunged by 25%, largely driven by a decrease in multi-unit starts as fears continue to mount over the fate of the city’s condo market,” says CMP. Kevin Hughes, CMHC’s deputy chief economist, said in the report there is a potential impact of economic storm clouds on starts in the months ahead. “The current economic uncertainty will have consequences for the supply and demand of new housing,” he said. Coupled with the gloomy Toronto outlook, the current pace of homebuilding remains well below the levels CMHC says are needed to restore housing affordability across the country by 2030, says CMP. The pace of new home construction so far this year poses an extreme challenge to Prime Minister Carney’s election campaign pledge to dramatically increase homebuilding across the country, delivering 500,000 new homes per year through a new bureaucracy called Build Canada Homes (BCH), says CMP, adding “according to the Liberal platform, BCH will focus on building affordable housing, supporting a new housing industry, and offering financing for builders of affordable homes.” .In 2023, CMHC said about 3.5 million extra housing units were required by 2030 to improve the affordability outlook for Canadians, with Ontario and British Columbia seeing the biggest housing supply gaps. Alberta and Quebec, the agency said, are also likely to need a boost in inventory as their populations grow.
