New residential construction in Canada 1948-2023

In 2023, there were fewer new home construction starts in Canada than in the previous year. Construction starts peaked in 2021, when there were 271,200 housing units whose construction started that year. Despite the restrictions imposed in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry managed to continue operating, with increases in the number of housing starts in 2020 and 2021. 

How many homes are under development?

In 2022, the number of housing units that were under construction in Canada was approximately 334,000 units. After a period of stagnation until 2016, the housing industry witnessed a significant surge in construction activity, with an annual growth rate of nearly 9.5 percent. Numerous factors are attributed to this rise, including the heightened demand for housing, an expanding economy that encouraged investment, and the response to the shortage of housing.

How expensive are homes in Canada?

In 2023, the average cost of a house in Canada was around 678,282 Canadian dollars. The average house price had fallen that year by 25,593 Canadian dollars compared in 2023 compared to the previous year. Another way to measure the trends in housing prices is the house price-to-income ratio. It measures the development of housing affordability and is calculated by dividing the nominal house price by the nominal disposable income per head. The house price-to-income ratio in Canada fell by 15.8 percentage points between the second quarter of 2022 and that same quarter in 2023, indicating that house values decreased in relation to earnings. This makes homeownership in Canada more challenging due to the decreasing affordability of dwellings.