BC's new home construction investment in rose nearly 16 per cent year over year in September, and 2.9 per cent since last month, to $836 million, according to a Statistics Canada report published November 20.
Yet again, multi-family housing construction led the growth in investment in BC, rising 22.2 per cent compared with September 2014 to $346 million, although this was a lift of just 1 per cent month over month.
BC’s investment in townhouse and row home construction continued to rise significantly, increasing 20.1 per cent year over year to $76 million in September. This was also an 11.6 per cent rise over August 2015, the strongest monthly rise of all the property types.
Spending on detached home construction also rose in the province, with the $387 million of investment across BC a 12.3 per cent rise over September 2014 and a 3.3 per cent increase compared with August.
As with the last couple of months, the only new home type to see a year-over-year decline in investment in September was duplex housing, spending on which fell 13.9 per cent year over year and 0.5 per cent month over month to $27 million.
Also as in recent months, the province’s total $836 million new home construction spend was once again the third highest dollar figure in the country, after Ontario and Alberta.
However, this month was the first time in a while that Ontario’s year-over-year investment percentage rise beat out BC’s growth rate. BC’s 16 per cent annual increase slipped from being Canada’s second highest in August to fifth highest in September, with the Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Ontario all increasing their construction spend at a faster rate.
Across Canada as a whole, new home spending continued to rise at a much slower rate than BC’s, totalling nearly $4.8 billion in September, up 4.8 per cent from the same month a year earlier and 5.3 per cent compared with August.
Statistics Canada again reported notable year-over-year declines in nationwide spending single-family housing and duplex construction, with investment in these property types falling 5 per cent and 13.2 per cent respectively.
As with last month, the declines in those property types were balanced out by much higher investment in multi-family home construction across Canada, up 26.5 per cent to $1.7 billion, as well as higher spending on row house and townhome construction, up a much more modest 3.7 per cent to nearly $445 million.
However as usual, across the country, detached homes again saw the biggest total investment in September at just shy of $2.4 billion.
To see Statistics Canada’s interactive chart, click here.
