Canadian Housing Starts (March 2026)

Housing starts pull back in March

• Canadian housing starts decreased to 235.9k annualized units in March, down 6% month-on-month (m/m). Meanwhile, the six-month moving average of starts dropped 3% m/m to 248.4k units in March. 
• March's decline was concentrated in the multi-family sector, with urban starts down 7% m/m to 184.9k units. Urban single-detached starts dropped 2% m/m to 39.1k units.
• Declines were broad-based regionally, with urban starts down in 8 of 10 provinces:
  
   
  • Starts pulled back significantly in B.C. (-14.2k to 28.2k units) and Ontario (-16.6k to 51.7k units). Falling activity in all three Prairie regions pulled total Prairie starts lower (-6.7k to 50.1k units). They also declined in the Atlantic (-1.3k to 12.0k units), on a steep drop in Nova Scotia. 
  • In contrast, starts soared higher in Quebec (+24.1k to 82.0k units) and were up in New Brunswick (+1.7k to 5.0k units).

Key Implications

• As anticipated, the volatile starts data pulled back in March after the prior month's gain. For the first quarter overall, housing starts were down 6% (not annualized), signaling that they will likely weigh on Q1 residential investment and overall GDP growth.
• On a trend basis starts are well down from their September 2025 high. This downtrend should be sustained through the remainder of this year amid soft population growth, elevated unsold inventories, and weak past pre-sales activity key markets like the GTA. Upcoming government policies to remove the GST/HST on new homes and reduce development charges in Ontario should spur demand for newly built housing. However, some of the lift to starts from these policies could come after this year, given typical lags between pre-sales and starts.     

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