By Robb M. Stewart
OTTAWA--Canadian housing starts slumped in March, adding to signs that renewed weakness in the property market remains.
Housing starts across Canada came in at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 235,852 units, a 6% drop from the month before, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said Friday. The market had expected a modest rise, with 255,000 residential housing projects to have started in March, according to economists at TD Securities.
The trend measure--a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts--declined 2.9% to 248,378 units last month, the country's national housing agency said.
March housing starts data point to a continued loss of momentum in housing construction, broadly in line with the agency's forecast for the housing market.
Despite the decline in seasonally adjusted data, actual housing starts were up strongly in cities with a population of 10,000 or more, climbing 10% from a year earlier in March to 16,398 units. The year-to-date total hit 49,206, up about 9% from the same period in 2025. That advance largely reflects the exceptionally low level of construction activity in the first quarter of last year, said Mathieu Laberge, CMHC's chief economist.
In Canada's three largest cities, starts were 26% higher year-over-year in Montreal, thanks to an increase in multi-unit homes. Vancouver recorded a 21% increase, while Toronto starts were up 23%.
There were an estimated 11,846 rural starts at a seasonally adjusted annual rate in March.
The outlook for Canada's housing market has weakened. Activity was weak to start the year, slowed by severe winter storms in parts of the country, and sales in March took another step back as fixed mortgage rates have been pushed up by the recent spike in oil prices. That has compounded economic and employment worries for some Canadians as uncertainty over trade lingers.
The Canadian Real Estate Association this week sharply lowered its sales forecast. It now anticipates a modest increase of 1% in 2026 home sales from the previous year, where it in January had projected a 5.1% rise. The association said its earlier forecast was underpinned by an expectation that potential buyers would begin to emerge after being shut out for much of this decade, while the revised forecast is the result of a jump in bond yields.
Data for March showed existing-home sales fell 0.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis from a month ago, while benchmark prices declined 0.4% in March from February, and dropped 4.6% from a year ago.
Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
04-17-26 0851ET
