Residential property sales in Canada fell in January to their lowest level since 2009 for that month, posting a decline of 37.1% from a year ago, the Canadian Real Estate Association said on Wednesday. (AIT).
January sales were also down month over month, down 3% from December. This downward movement therefore counterbalances the small gains made then, specifies the ACI.
Home sales fell last year as rising mortgage rates increased the cost of borrowing for Canadians and slowed the housing market. The number of homes newly listed for sale also rose 3.3% month-over-month in January, the association reports.
The actual national average house price was $612,204 in January, down 18.3% from January 2022. Month-over-month, that sales price was down 1.8%, thus recording its fifth consecutive monthly contraction and the tenth in the last 11 months. The average selling price is down more than 21% from the peak reached in February 2022, says Randall Bartlett, senior director, Canadian economy, at Desjardins Group.
In the new, the annual rate of housing starts fell by 13% in January in the country, indicated for its part the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. The annualized and seasonally adjusted rate of housing starts for the first month of the year reached 215,365 units, compared to the 248,296 units recorded in December.
Housing starts in urban centers fell 16 per cent to 191,491 units in January. The annualized rate of multi-unit housing starts in urban centers fell 20% to 146,267 units for the month of January, while that of single-family housing starts in urban centers climbed 3% , at 45,224 units. The annualized rate of housing starts in rural areas was estimated at 23,874 units.
The decline was particularly marked in Quebec, where only 2,045 homes were started last month, a decrease of 45% compared to January 2022.
This is the worst start to the year in four years, noted the Association of Construction and Housing Professionals of Quebec (APCHQ). “In January, the foundations of only 215 single-family homes in Quebec were laid, which represents a drop of 39%. The decline is even more pronounced for collective housing, with 1,830 housing starts, a decrease of 46% compared to January 2022.
“Residential construction drops sharply for a second straight month, as January’s result follows a 44% decline in December. It is the rental segment that suffers the most. With a vacancy rate of only 1.7% province-wide, this is nothing to help get out of the housing crisis,” said the director of the economic department of the APCHQ, Paul Cardinal.
With Duty