Building permit values rise 12% in August
Building permit values enjoyed a successful end to summer, with activity in Ontario in particular helping to bolster totals.
Statistics Canada reports that the value of building permits increased by 11.9% in August, bringing the total to $12.5 billion. Both the residential (+12.0% to $8.4 billion) and non-residential sectors (+11.8% to $4.0 billion) saw strong gains.
On the residential side of the ledger, intentions in the single-family homes component edged up 0.4%. The value of building permits in the multi-family component, meanwhile, increased sharply – by 22.2% – largely due to a strong monthly performance in Ontario (+85.3%). A $480-million permit for a luxury skyscraper in Toronto along with several other permits for apartments resulted in the largest recorded monthly value for the province.
Meanwhile, the total permit value of the non-residential sector increased 11.8% to $4.0 billion in August.
The value of building permits in the industrial component rebounded with an increase of 18.1%. Saskatchewan sharply increased by 77.7% with three permits over $5 million. Nova Scotia also had a notable increase with a variety of smaller permits.
Institutional permit values sharply increased by 39.1%, mainly due to a more than doubling of permit values in Ontario (+224.2%). Permits for a new school in Hamilton and a new building at George Brown College in Toronto were behind much of the increase.
Construction intentions in the commercial component decreased 1.4%, largely due to Alberta and Saskatchewan. Conversely, Manitoba saw notable growth in August due to a $50 million permit for an office building in Winnipeg.