While single-home starts dropped all over Ontario last month from June, Ottawa bucked the trend, with the single detached home sector reaching the highest level so far this year, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation said Tuesday.
Total housing starts in the Ottawa Census Metropolitan Area reached 763 units in July, over 40 per cent higher than the same time last year.
The growth wasn’t only among single detached homes.
“Intense activity was witnessed in all housing types, most notably in the apartment segment,” said CMHC senior market analyst Sandra Perez Torres. “As well, townhomes reached the highest year-to-date totals in 15 years driving total housing starts higher.”
One of the reasons for this is because job growth has reached record levels in recent months, helping to maintain activity in the Ottawa housing market, Perez Torres said.
The areas with the most growth include downtown, where most of the growth came from apartment units, and Goulbourn, Nepean and Kanata, where the increases were mainly from townhomes.
Provincewide, an estimated 51,100 residential housing units broke ground last month.
