CMHC record shows housing starts down 42% in October compared to last year

Ottawa’s home construction market cooled in October, with housing starts down 42 per cent compared to the same month in 2023.

 

New statistics from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) show there were 636 housing starts in October, down from 1,106 housing starts the year before. Ottawa saw 1,510 housing starts in September.

 

October’s housing starts included 120 new single-family homes and 516 other units.

 

CMHC says construction started on 6,520 new homes and other units in the first 10 months of 2024, down from 7,619 through the January-October period in 2023.

 

Ontario’s Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing has set a target of 12,583 new dwellings for Ottawa in 2024 for the city to be eligible for funding under the Building Faster Fund. Municipalities will be eligible for funding if they reach 80 per cent or more of their annual housing targets.

Across Canada, there were 19,670 housing starts in October, down from 22,163 starts in October 2023. Construction has started on 168,952 homes and units across Canada in the first 10 months of the year.

 

 

The statistics show construction has started on 509 homes in Kingston so far in 2024, down from 1,353 homes during the January-October period in 2023. In October, construction began on 189 new homes and units.

 

In Gatineau, construction started on 3,089 homes in the first 10 months of 2024, up from 2,689 homes in the January-October period last year. The report shows construction started on 729 new homes and units in October.

 

 

 

 

This article was first reported by CTV News