OTTAWA – Interest in condominiums is soaring in big cities like Toronto and Vancouver, prompting some analysts to worry about a potential bubble. Simultaneously, crude-producing provinces like Alberta are in a slump.
Millionaire boomers decamp Vancouver pocketing housing windfalls as city becomes a ‘commodity’
The West Coast’s retirees are cashing out as an influx of foreign demand pushes up housing prices in Vancouver inflating real estate prices in B.C.’s once-sleepy retirement enclaves. Read on
“Housing starts are trending in a four-year lower in the Prairies, where low oil prices have weakened consumer confidence,” CMHC Chief Economist Bob Dugan said in a statement.
“At the same time, starts are trending at an eight-year full of British Columbia, as new and resale home inventories remain low,” he added.
Canadian housing starts jumped in February from January as hot Ontario and British Columbia markets outpaced the energy-producing West, in which a crude slump has hit confidence, the nation’s housing agency said on Tuesday.
A report in the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp showed the seasonally adjusted annualized rate of housing starts rose to 212,594 units in February from the downwardly revised 165,071 units in January. Forecasters had expected 180,000 starts.
The Liberal government last December attempted to cool the hotter parts of the marketplace, saying it might force individuals who are interested more costly homes to provide a bigger deposit.
BMO Capital Markets economist Robert Kavcic said the nation’s results masked the two-speed nature of the Canadian housing market.
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“On one end of the spectrum, residential construction activity is within outright recession, while on another, new construction has flared well above past highs,” he explained inside a note to clients.
Kavcic noted that housing starts in Bc hit their highest level since 1990 while Vancouver recorded the most condominium starts on record.
“We’ve long been defenders of the Canadian housing industry from the rabid bears, but activity in Vancouver a minimum of is making that position a great deal tougher to make,” he said.
Separately, Canada’s national statistics agency Statscan said on Tuesday the value of Canadian building permits issued in January came by 9.8 percent from December, the second sharp retreat in 3 months.
The fall exceeded the 2.5 per cent decline forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll.
A 21-per cent reduction in construction intentions for multi-family dwellings, concentrated in Ontario and British Columbia, was the key reason for the weaker performance in January. The general value of permits issued in Alberta fell by 5.3 percent.
? Thomson Reuters 2016
