Vancouver bucks nationwide downtrend in home starts
Posted January 11, 2016 10:32 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Metro Vancouver’s residential building boom continued in 2015, with construction of new homes at the fastest pace in 22 years.
The federal housing agency says the Vancouver region had 20,823 housing starts last year, a nine per cent increase. Multi-unit starts, meaning condos and rentals, were up nine per cent to 16,241.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation says six per cent more single-detached houses were started, a total of 4,622.
In December, home starts in Metro Vancouver rose 20 per cent to 2,057. It was entirely due to multi-unit homes, which rose 27 per cent to 1,707. Single-detached houses fell six per cent to 350.
Vancouver’s seasonally adjusted annual rate was the year’s third-strongest at 25,101. A smoothed-out number, the six-month rolling average, was little changed from from November.
Nationwide housing starts last year rose six per cent to 181,598. In December, however, there was an 18 per cent decrease — the biggest in three years — as developers in Toronto began fewer condos.
