Multifamily building permits hit a record high in December


Thursday, February 7th, 2019

Building permits across Canada up

Steve Randall
Canadian Real Estate Wealth

The total value of building permits issued by Canadian municipalities was up 6% (month-over-month) in December to $8.8 billion, with multifamily and commercial intentions taking the lead.

Statistics Canada says that the multifamily sector was up 11.1% to post a record high of $3.3 billion. It was the fourth consecutive monthly gain for the sector with BC and Ontario leading the gains across 6 provinces.

Meanwhile, the single-family sector posted a 5.4% decline to $2 billion. Four provinces saw lower intentions for this sector with Ontario reporting its lowest value since March 2014.

Overall residential permits totalled $5.3 billion, up 4% with BC leading the gains. Municipalities approved the construction of 20,210 new dwellings (+2.9%), consisting of 15,678 multi-family units (+5.0%) and 4,532 single-family units (-3.6%).

Commercial leads non-residential

In the non-residential sector, it was commercial building permits that dominated with a 14.6% gain in the value of permits to a record high of $2.3 billion. BC and Ontario led gains across 8 provinces.

Industrial permits totalled $588 million, up 11.9%; while institutional buildings saw a drop of 10.6% to $606 million.

The total value of building permits issued for non-residential was up 8.9% to $3.5 billion.

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