BC’s new home building investment in June was up 33 per cent year over year and 2.5 per cent since May to $950,379 million – the highest amount invested in a single month, Statistics Canada reported August 22.
The record investment was led by another jump in spending on BC apartment-condo buildings, up nearly 53 per cent year over year to $434,020. This was again BC’s housing type that saw the most investment in June, and was an increase of 7.9 per cent from May.
Single-family home construction investment fell again month over month, down 1.3 per cent to $404 million in June. However, this home type was still up more than 19 per cent compared with June 2015.
Townhouse and row house construction was up 34.2 per cent year over year to $83.6 million, a four per cent decline since May. Year-over-year duplex investment dropped again, down three per cent to just shy of $28 million, although this was a slight improvement of 0.4 per cent month over month.
BC’s total new housing construction spend was once again second only to that of Ontario, which invested nearly double BC’s amount at $1.8 billion in June. However, BC’s year-over-year percentage increase outstripped Ontario’s again, with Ontario seeing 25.9 per cent growth. The only region to see sharper growth was the Northwest Territories at 36.5 per cent, although the absolute numbers are small enough to make those figures more volatile.
Investment in new housing construction fell in four of Canada’s provinces and territories, with year-over-year declines in Newfoundland and Labrador, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Nunavut. The largest decrease was seen in Alberta, where the 30 per cent fall was the province’s 12th consecutive year-over-year decline.
Strong gains in BC, Ontario and other provinces drove national new home building investment up 8.7 per cent year over year to $4.4 billion in June, a strong rise of 4.3 per cent compared with May. Most of the yearly increase came from higher investment in apartment-condominium construction, which jumped 16.7 per cent year over year to $1.54 billion nationwide. Row house construction also increased nationally, rising 8.1 per cent to $416 million.
Investment in single-family homes recovered after the previous month’s dip, up 5.3 per cent year over year to $2.24 billion for the country as a whole.
Duplexes continued to be the odd man out in construction investment, continuing to see declining figures, with year-over-year investment across Canada falling 5.9 per cent to $210 million.
To see Statistics Canada’s interactive chart, click here.
