According to Statistics Canada, the total monthly value of building permits in Canada decreased 6.5 percent in September to $11.2 billion, with most of the drop attributed to the monthly decline in the institutional component.
The total monthly value of residential permits increased 4.3 percent to $7.2 billion in September, led by a 37.2 percent monthly increase in construction intentions in British Columbia. Residential permits issued in the census metropolitan areas (CMAs) of Vancouver, Kelowna, and Victoria together made up 77.3 percent of the value of residential permits and 79.9 percent of the number of new dwellings authorized for the province in September.
Monthly gains in the value of residential permits in Newfoundland and Labrador (+20.8 percent; +$6.0 million), Prince Edward Island (+16.2 percent; +$4.8 million), Nova Scotia (+10.3 percent; +$18.5 million), and Quebec (+9.1 percent; +$105.2 million) offset the declines in the remaining five provinces.
Across Canada, 21,700 new dwelling units were authorized through building permits in September, 5.6 percent more than August 2023 and 2.3 percent more than September 2022.
The total monthly value of non-residential permits fell 21.0 percent from August to $4.0 billion in September. This drop was attributed to the decline in construction intentions for the institutional component (-50.7 percent to $1.0 billion), following a record high for the component in August ($2.1 billion) which saw permits issued for several high valued construction projects.
Despite the sharp month-over-month decline, the total value of non-residential building permits in September 2023 ($4.0 billion) was 18.7 percent higher than September 2022 ($3.4 billion), as construction intentions in the non-residential sector have been steadily trending upwards over the course of the past 12 months. This trend also holds true on a constant dollar basis, which removes the impact of changes in construction costs on the value of building permits.