Canada Housing Starts Up 17% to 279,317 in April

OTTAWA Canada's housing starts surged in April, reaching a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 279,317 units, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.

The figure marked a 17 percent increase from March's revised rate of 239,747 units, previously reported as 235,900. CMHC, the national housing agency, attributed the monthly jump to volatility in the data, cautioning that such period-to-period changes require careful interpretation. Rural housing starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 13,694 units for the month.

A six-month moving average of the seasonally adjusted annual rate, which smooths out fluctuations, rose 3.2 percent to 256,777 units. In urban centres with populations exceeding 10,000, actual starts totalled 21,805 units, a slight decline of less than 1 percent from 21,938 units in April 2025.

Year-to-date through April, urban starts reached 71,011 units, up 6 percent from the same period a year earlier. The gain was propelled by higher activity in British Columbia and Ontario.

Regional breakdowns showed varied performance among major cities. Toronto saw a 34 percent year-over-year increase, fueled mainly by multi-unit construction. Montreal...