The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) has reported that condo apartment construction has resulted in a surge in new housing starts in the GTA.
The stand alone monthly seasonally adjusted rate was 65,097 units in August, up from 23,716 units in July. This was largely the result of an increase in apartment starts this month.
CMHC says housing starts in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) trended at 43,846 units in August compared to 36,839, in July. The trend is a six month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted housing start rates.
“Significant increases in apartment starts lifted the trend number to its highest level since early 2013,” said Dana Senagama, CMHC principal market analyst for the GTA. “High sales of pre-construction condominium apartment units throughout 2014 continue to convert to starts this year.”
For the second time this year the suburban regions of Toronto CMA together had a larger number of apartment starts than the City of Toronto. However, the City of Toronto was still the municipality with the highest number of total starts, most of which were apartment units. The City of Richmond Hill followed by the municipalities of Mississauga and Vaughan had the next highest number of apartment starts.
You can download the preliminary housing market data report here.
