CMHC reports February housing starts up 4.5 per cent from January

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says the annual pace of housing starts rose 4.5 per cent in February.

The national housing agency said the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts was 250,900 units in February compared with 240,148 units in January.

Housing starts can vary considerably month-to-month as big projects get started. The six-month moving average of the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts was down 0.4 per cent in February at 256,005 units.

“In February, the six-month trend in housing starts was essentially flat, indicating that the trend in new construction activity remains relatively steady despite ongoing monthly volatility,” said CMHC deputy chief economist Kevin Hughes in a news release.

“Looking ahead, we expect heightened levels of business uncertainty and construction costs to weigh on the rate and trend of housing starts in the near-to-medium term.”

Actual housing starts were up 10 per cent year-over-year in centres with a population of 10,000 or greater.

Some 15,886 unit starts in those centres were recorded in February, compared with 14,420 a year ago.

The agency said construction has kicked off on 31,974 units so far this year, up five per cent from the same two-month period in 2025. The increase has been driven by higher starts to begin the year in B.C. and Ontario.

Higher starts across the latter province have made up for decreases in Toronto. Canada’s largest city saw starts decline 28 per cent year-over-year in February due to lower multi-unit and single-detached starts.

Meanwhile, Vancouver recorded a 60 per cent increase and Montreal saw an 18 per cent increase driven by higher multi-unit and single-detached starts.

While construction rebounded in February from the previous month, which was affected by harsh winter weather, TD economist Rishi Sondhi called it a “tepid” bounce-back.

“On a trend basis, starts have been generally cooling since September of last year,” he said in a note.

“We think the pace of starts will continue to ease, impacted by weak population growth, high costs, elevated levels of unsold inventories, and very weak pre-sales activity in key markets like the GTA.”