Investment in New Housing Construction Up 0.4% in August Year over Year

Nationally, higher spending on apartment and apartment-condominium building construction and, to a lesser degree, row house construction, offset lower investment in single-family and semi-detached dwelling construction.

Investment in apartment and apartment-condominium building construction totalled $1.6 billion in August, up 24.8% compared with the same month a year earlier. This was the fourth consecutive double-digit advance. Spending on row housing amounted to $432 million, up 7.5% from August 2014.

Investment in the construction of single-family dwellings fell 11.6% year over year to $2.2 billion. Construction spending on semi-detached dwellings declined 12.8% to $236 million.

Increases were registered in three provinces, led by Ontario, followed by British Columbia and Nova Scotia. Alberta, Quebec and Saskatchewan registered the largest decreases.

In Ontario, construction spending grew 14.5% to $1.7 billion in August compared with the same month a year earlier. Spending on single-family houses accounted for much of the growth, followed by apartment and apartment-condominium buildings. In contrast, investment in semi-detached dwellings fell 20.7% year over year, marking the sixth consecutive decline.

In British Columbia, investment rose 16.9% to $809 million in August. The growth came from all dwelling types except semi-detached. However, higher construction spending on apartment and apartment-condominium buildings accounted for most of the advance.

In Nova Scotia, investment in new housing construction increased 15.1% from August 2014 to $63 million in August. The advance was attributable to higher construction spending on apartment and apartment-condominium buildings, which offset lower investment in the other dwelling types, particularly single-family houses.

Table 1: Investment in new housing construction, by type of dwelling, Canada

Source: Statistics Canada, www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/151021/dq151021b-eng.htm