According to Statistics Canada, new housing construction investment rose 5.8 percent from August 2016 to $5.0 billion in August, with gains reported for all building types.
Despite year-over-year declines in six provinces, single-family homes still led investment in new housing construction with total investment of $2.5 billion.
The gap between investment in multiple-dwelling buildings (doubles, row homes and apartments) and single-family homes is continuously shrinking. In August 2007, investment in single-family homes almost doubled total investment in multiple-dwelling buildings. A decade later, in 2017, the difference was only 1.2 percent. During this 10-year period, the gap between investment in single homes and multiple-dwelling buildings narrowed in every province except New Brunswick.
Apartment building construction rose 5.2 percent from August 2016 to $1.7 billion in August. Investment in row homes posted the largest year-over-year increase (+$99.9 million) among all building types, bringing total spending for this building type to its highest value ($541.1 million) since January 1992.