April 2016 Housing Starts Rising in British Columbia

VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - May 9, 2016) - Housing starts in British Columbia's urban areas were trending at 37,836 units in April compared to 35,973 units in March, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The trend is a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) of housing starts.

"Residential home builders responded to ongoing demand for housing and limited new, existing and rental housing availability with an increase in housing starts in April," said Carol Frketich, CMHC's BC Regional Economist. "Condominium apartments accounted for the bulk of the increase in starts over the last six months. As well, apartment construction reflects new rental projects that have begun in response to low rental vacancy rates in the province's largest urban centres."

CMHC uses the trend measure as a complement to the monthly SAAR of housing starts to account for considerable swings in monthly estimates and obtain a more complete picture of the state of the housing market. In some situations, analysing only SAAR data can be misleading in some markets as they are largely driven by the multiples segment of the markets which can be quite variable from one month to the next.

The standalone monthly SAAR for urban starts in British Columbia was 45,591 units in April, compared to 39,839 units in March.

Preliminary Housing Starts data is also available in English and French at the following link:

Preliminary Housing Starts Tables

As Canada's authority on housing, CMHC contributes to the stability of the housing market and financial system, provides support for Canadians in housing need, and offers objective housing research and information to Canadian governments, consumers and the housing industry.

For more information, visit our website at www.cmhc.ca or follow us on Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Additional data is available upon request.

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To view the tables accompanying this press release please click on the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/1053589NE1.pdf