According to Statistics Canada, investment in residential construction increased by 8.0 percent to $30.5 billion in the first quarter of 2018 compared with the same quarter in 2017.
All components, with the exception of mobile homes, contributed to the quarterly year-over-year increase in spending on residential construction. The growth was led by spending on apartment buildings, which accounted for 39.5 percent of the total increase (+$890.8 million or +21.5 percent), followed by investment in renovations (+$677.9 million or +5.5 percent).
Apartment building construction investment posted gains in nine provinces, led by Quebec, where spending was up 55.8 percent (+$492.6 million). For this province, this marked the largest year-over-year increase since the current series began in 1996. Alberta was the only province to report a drop in spending on apartment building construction, down $4.7 million compared with the first quarter of 2017.
Spending on renovations increased for all provinces (+$677.9 million or + 5.5 percent), led by Ontario (+$239.6 million) and Quebec (+$169.2 million). Among the Atlantic provinces, Nova Scotia (+$11.3 million) and New Brunswick (+$10.2 million) posted the largest gains for this component. In Western Canada, investment on renovations was led by British Columbia (+$123.8 million), Alberta (+$55.3 million) and Manitoba (+$37.7 million).
Investment on single homes posted its lowest year-over-year rise (+$40.3 million or +0.6 percent) since the fourth quarter of 2015. The increase in this component was led by British Columbia (+$173.6 million) and Alberta (+$142.2 million).