New Housing Construction Up in May Year over Year

Spending on new housing construction totalled $3.9 billion in May, up 2.0% from the same month a year earlier. The increase came mostly from higher investment in apartment and apartment-condominium building construction, up 12.8% to $1.3 billion. Higher spending on row house construction, up 8.6% to $412 million, also contributed to the advance. Conversely, investment in single-family dwellings fell 4.7% to $1.9 billion. Spending on semi-detached dwelling construction declined 4.9% to $232 million.

At the provincial level, Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta and Nova Scotia reported increases on a year-over-year basis. In Ontario, construction spending rose 14.6% to $1.4 billion in May. In British Columbia, investment in new residential construction was up 16.2% to $712 million. In Alberta, investment grew 5.1% to $932 million. In Nova Scotia, spending increased 13.0% to $43 million.

In contrast, Quebec registered the largest decrease, followed by Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

In Quebec, investment in new housing construction declined 22.2% to $558 million in May. In Saskatchewan, construction spending fell 27.8% to $105 million. In Manitoba, spending on new residential construction decreased 22.7% to $97 million.

Source: Statistics Canada, www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/150721/dq150721a-eng.htm?cmp=mstatcan.