Canada’s annual pace of housing starts increased by three per cent in January.
The seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts came in at 239,739 units.
That was compared to 232,492 units in December, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).
Figures provided by the corporation show the annual rate of urban starts increased by three per cent to 220,643 units, while the annual rate of rural starts was estimated to be around 19,096 units.
Actual housing starts in urban centres are up seven per cent year over year, with 15,930 units recorded in January.
“While these increases show early signs of progress to begin the year, foreign trade risks add significant uncertainty for housing construction going forward,” Tania Bourassa-Ochoa, CMHC’s deputy chief economist, said in a statement.
The corporation recently projected that housing starts would slow down from 2025 until 2027.
Meanwhile, the six-month trend in housing starts declined 2.5 per cent to 236,892 units. The trend measure is a six-month moving average of the seasonally adjusted annual rate of total housing starts.
