By Robb M. Stewart
OTTAWA--Canadian housing starts rebounded strongly in April after months of steady declines.
Housing starts across Canada came in at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 279,317 units, a 17% rise from the month before, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said Friday. This was slightly stronger that the 245,000 residential housing projects the market had forecast were started last month, according to economists at TD Securities.
The trend measure--a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts--advanced 3.2% to 256,777 units in April, Canada's national housing agency said.
"While the six-month trend in housing starts rose slightly in April, it follows several consecutive months of decline, underscoring the uneven nature of current construction activity, and month-to-month volatility," said Kevin Hughes, deputy chief economist at the agency.
Housing starts capture construction that has begun and offer an indication of future housing supply, which has long lagged demand in Canada.
Actual housing starts were down 1% year-over-year in city centers with a population of 10,000 or greater, with 21,805 units recorded in April. The year-to-date total stands at 71,011 units, up 6% from the same period in 2025, driven by higher starts in British Columbia and Ontario.
The outlook for Canada's housing market has weakened. Activity was sluggish to kick off the year after severe winter storms in parts of the country, and the recent spike in oil prices as the war in Iran has compounded economic and employment worries for some Canadians even as uncertainty over trade and tariffs lingers.
The Canadian Real Estate Association anticipates a modest increase of 1% in 2026 existing home sales. Its data for April showed home resales nudged up 0.7% from the month before, the first rise in six months, though sales were down 4% on a year earlier in unadjusted terms.
Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
05-15-26 0853ET
