Ontario Construction News staff writer
July housing National housing starts were up 4 per cent year-over-year in centres with a population of 10,000 or more, with 23,464 units recorded in July 2025 compared to 22,610 a year earlier, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says in data published Aug 18.
CMHC’s deputy chief economist Kevin Hughes in a report said although the national numbers suggest a modest improvement, new home construction varies significantly across the country.
He noted that while Québec and the Prairie provinces have accelerated the pace of construction for single-detached homes and purpose-built rentals, a decrease in multi-unit and single-detached starts propelled a 69 per drop in Toronto’s housing starts last month compared to July 2024.
Montréal posted a 212 per cent year-over-year increase in starts, driven by significantly higher multi-unit starts while Vancouver recorded a 24 per cent increase on higher multi-unit starts.
The seasonally adjusted annual rate of total urban housing starts in centres with populations of 10,000 or more was up 5 per cent in July, at 273,618 units compared to 261,171 units in June.
Rural starts were a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 20,467 units.
After surging by 30 per cent in April, housing starts in June posted a slight national increase with a 0.4 per cent month-over-month gain.
Seasonally adjusted starts across all areas reached 283,734 units in June, up from 282,705 units in May. The national six-month trend, which smooths out volatility from monthly data, climbed 3.6 per cent to 253,081 units.
The CMHC in its summer housing outlook said the housing market will continue to cool in 2025 due to trade tensions, economic uncertainty, slower population growth and increasing unemployment. Home prices are expected to fall around 2 per cent, with larger drops in Ontario and British Columbia as buyers and developers take a wait-and-see approach.
“Affordability remains a major issue and new construction is slowing. Rental markets are easing slightly as more supply comes online, and demand softens,” the outlook says. “A gradual recovery is expected in 2026 as trade tensions ease and economic conditions improve.”
