Are major cities addressing supply concerns?

Two divergent housing trends in Canada’s two top markets

They both may have supply issues, but one of the markets is addressing the problem.
In Vancouver housing start trends increased in March increased from 24,148 units in February to 25,969 in March.

“An increase in single-detached, townhome and apartment starts saw the pace of new home construction surpass last month’s trend,” Richard Sam, CMHC market analyst, said. “Record monthly resales and low inventories of new move-in ready homes have motivated builders to bring on more supply to the marketplace.”

The red-hot market has seen record sales and, indeed, price gains, and it appears developers have taken note.

Meanwhile, over in Canada’s second hottest market, Toronto housing starts are trending downward.

The housing start trend in in the Toronto CMA decreased from 42,252 in February to 41,916 in March.

“The housing starts trend remained largely unchanged in Toronto this past March,” Dana Senagama, CMHC principal market analyst for the GTA, said. “Home starts have been bolstered by a steady number of new apartment starts. What’s more, low inventories of resale homes and strong new home sales over the past couple of years continue to encourage high-rise starts in Toronto.”

However, two of Toronto’s busiest centres did see start increase increases.

“The City of Toronto recorded the highest number of starts within the Toronto CMA due to a large number of apartment starts in March,” CMHC said in a release. “Markham recorded the next highest number of starts as a result of higher apartment units. This was followed by Brampton, where single-detached and row construction was robust.”