September 2016 Housing Starts in Ottawa

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Oct. 11, 2016) - Housing starts in the Ottawa Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending at 5,666 units in September compared to 4,886 units in August 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.

"Housing starts trended up in September mainly due to a strengthening in rental apartment starts. There is renewed growth in rental product as the rental stock is aging. Builders are looking to diversify the high-rise dwelling mix as there is a high number of unsold condominium units. Builders may also be banking on weaker first-time-buyer homeownership demand, higher immigration levels, and relative affordability of renting vs. owning to support rental demand," said Anne-Marie Shaker, CMHC's Senior Market Analyst for Ottawa.

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 multiples segment includes apartments, rows and semi-detached homes.

In Ottawa, the monthly SAAR measure was 8,500 in September, up from 5,647 in August, primarily due to the increase in apartment starts, but also to continued momentum in single-detached starts. Noteworthy is that the strongest year-to-date growth relative to last year was in row starts.

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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A graph and tables are available at the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/1072005e.pdf.