The precarious economic situation got the better of residential housing starts in Quebec, which experienced their biggest monthly decline in eight years, in March.
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This is shown in the most recent bulletin of the Association of Construction and Housing Professionals of Quebec (APCHQ) published Wednesday morning. Thus, there is a 55% drop in housing starts across the province in March 2023. This is the seventh consecutive decline.
Whether for single-detached homes (224 housing starts; -54%) or multi-unit housing (1,575 housing starts; -55%), all sectors suffered the backlash from the hikes in the key rate.
“The rise in interest rates is hitting new construction hard and the decline is particularly marked in the rental segment. With a vacancy rate of only 1.7% province-wide last October and growing needs due to the spectacular increase in net migration, the situation is far from favorable as the 1st July”, explained Paul Cardinal, director of the Economic Department of the APCHQ.
In five of the seven census metropolitan areas (CMAs) of La Belle Province, a drop in housing starts was observed and for four of them – Gatineau (-74%), Quebec (-68%), Saguenay (- 59%) and Montreal (-57%) – this decrease is more than 50%.