Investment in new housing construction, April 2017

Released: 2017-06-21

New housing construction investment totalled $4.6 billion in April, up 8.4% compared with April 2016. Eight provinces posted gains, led by Ontario.

Nationally, investment increased for every dwelling type. The gain was mostly due to spending on single-family dwellings, up $251.8 million to $2.4 billion. Six provinces posted higher investments in single-family dwelling construction. Ontario was well ahead of the other provinces, with $203.7 million in increased spending, a 22.9% increase over April 2016.

Investment in apartment building construction rose 1.9% in April, mainly attributable to higher spending in British Columbia (+$61.4 million), followed by Quebec (+$29.5 million). The biggest declines for this type of dwelling were in Alberta (-$58.2 million) and Ontario (-$14.1 million).

Year over year, investment in new row housing construction continued to increase in most provinces in April. Only Alberta (-$18.4 million) and Nova Scotia (-$0.5 million) posted declines.

Spending on semi-detached dwelling construction increased in seven provinces in April, up 13.2% from April 2016 to $218.1 million. Alberta posted the largest year-over-year increase (+$12.9 million). Spending on semi-detached dwelling construction edged down in British Columbia, Quebec and Manitoba.

Chart 1 
Investment in new housing construction, by type of dwelling

Provincially, the biggest year-over-year increases were recorded in Ontario and, to a lesser degree, British Columbia and Manitoba.

In Ontario, new residential construction investment rose 15.1% to $1.9 billion. Spending was up for all dwelling types except apartment buildings, which fell 2.8%.

New housing construction investment in British Columbia rose 6.1% year over year to $997.2 million. This gain was mainly attributable to increased spending on apartment building construction, as spending for this type of dwelling represents 45.6% of total spending on new housing construction in the province.

In Manitoba, investment in new housing construction totalled $143.3 million, up 38.7% compared with April 2016. This gain was primarily attributable to increased investment in single-family dwelling construction (+$27.7 million) and, to a lesser extent, apartment building construction (+$9.4 million).

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