Canada’s housing agency warned against overbuilding after a surge in condo and apartment projects took housing starts to a three-year high.
Work on new homes advanced 7.7 per cent to 230,701 units at an annual pace in September, the Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp. said Thursday from Ottawa.
Urban multi-unit projects such as condominiums and apartments increased 10.5 per cent to 157,919 units, and single-family houses by 0.8 per cent to 58,275 units.
Homebuilding now exceeds the agency’s forecast for 190,000 new households to be created this year, and suggests companies must guard against a glut of properties they can’t sell fast enough, CMHC chief economist Bob Dugan said in the report.
There is a “continuing need for inventory management to minimize the number of completed but unsold units,” Dugan said.
Full article: http://business.financialpost.com/personal-finance/mortgages-real-estate/canadian-housing-starts-spike-to-3-year-high-but-building-in-calgary-plummets
