Multiple-unit starts fall off
Ashley Ford
Province
The bloom is slightly off Greater Vancouver’s home-construction industry, with starts for the first seven months of the year falling 10 per cent from 2006.
Despite the decline the industry is not standing at the edge of a huge decline and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says demand for new and existing homes remains strong across the Lower Mainland.
The volatile multiple-unit sector is mainly responsible for the drop. Large fluctuations in this sector are not uncommon due to the lengthy approval process, the federal agency said. As well, CMHC does not classify a project as a start until construction has reached the first floor.
“Wild monthly fluctuations in multiple starts are a common occurrence. However, single- detached-home building has been holding steady at well below last year’s high level,” said Robyn Adamache, senior market analyst at CMHC.
Multiple levels are only off slightly from a year ago, CMHC said. There are many projects in the planning pipeline, some of which will take longer to handle given the current civic labour problems. So far this year, there have been 8,442 multiple starts compared with 8,611 a year ago, a two-per-cent drop.
The single sector has long been under pressure given the high price of land and construction costs. There have been 2,426 single starts across the Lower Mainland this year, down nearly 31 per cent from last year’s 3,513 starts.
Overall, there have been 10,868 starts this year, a 10.4 per cent drop from 12,124 last year.
B.C.-wide starts show a similar pattern with a decline of four per cent to 18,852 starts from 19,722 last year.
Nationally, starts declined 4.3 per cent last month to 215,600 from 225,300 in June.
Statistics Canada reports price increases continue to slow.
“Looking ahead, the future for the Canadian housing sector remains good, with the sustained economic boom and favourable demographic factors contributing to the buoyant outlook,” said Millan Mulraine economics strategist at TD Securities.
© The Vancouver Province 2007
