indicatorThe Twenty-Four

Turning up the heat

Home construction picks up steam

By Siddhartha Bhattacharya, ATB Economics 15 April 2024 1 min read

Housing construction intentions made some solid advances to begin the year.

The seasonally-adjusted value of residential building permits* issued by Alberta municipalities* reached $1.1 billion in February, a 3.9% increase from the previous month and only 0.3% shy of the record peak attained in May 2022.

Values of both single and multi-unit dwelling permits stood about 40% higher than last February.

The momentum is even stronger if you look at the number of permits issued. There were a total of 4,215 residential dwellings created in February, up 5.0% from January and 33% year-over-year (y/y).

The monthly gain in issuances was a result of a 36% surge (mostly in multi-unit dwellings) in Calgary, which offset a pull back in Edmonton.

Residential construction intentions in Alberta are traversing a separate path than the rest of the country. Two months in, residential building permits issued in Alberta stood 34% above the same point in 2023 while they were down 6.6% for the national economy.

Housing starts, another indicator of residential construction activity, have also picked up markedly since mid-2023 and were up by 17% in February**.

Looking ahead, robust population-driven demand in Alberta is likely to put continued upward pressure on construction intentions in the coming months despite a higher borrowing cost environment.

*Statistics Canada’s Building Permits Survey covers all Canadian municipalities that issue permits.

**March housing starts are expected to come out today but the release from CMHC is delayed.

Answer to the previous trivia question: Sabermetrics is the empirical analysis of baseball statistics.

Today’s trivia question: In what year was the first Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel awarded?

The number of residential permits issued over the first two months of 2024 were up by 34% from the same point last year in Alberta whereas they were down by 6.6% nationally

The number of residential permits issued over the first two months of 2024 were up by 34% from the same point last year in Alberta whereas they were down by 6.6% nationally


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