Metro Vancouver's new housing construction starts down by 48%
Following a strong start to 2025, new housing starts in February 2025 in Metro Vancouver fell by 48 per cent year-over-year, according to a new bulletin posted today by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).
February 2025’s housing starts in Metro Vancouver totalled 1,404 units, dropping below the 2,007 units recorded in January 2025. The January total represented a 37 percent year-over-year increase.
Abbotsford–Mission saw a 156 per cent year-over-year increase in February 2025, while Chilliwack saw a 117 per cent increase. Both of these Fraser Valley markets had seen year-over-year gains in January 2025.
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Over the same month, compared to February 2024, Greater Victoria saw its housing starts dip by 49%, Calgary went up by 44%, and Edmonton went down by 10%.
Generally, housing starts are defined as the beginning of construction work on the building.
In contrast to Canada’s largest housing market, housing starts in Greater Toronto reached 2,368 units in January 2025, representing a 41 per cent year-over-year decrease, and 1,479 units in February 2025, representing a 68 per cent year-over-year decrease.
According to CMHC, both February 2025 decreases in Metro Vancouver and Greater Toronto were due to “decreases in multi-unit and single-detached starts.”
Greater Montreal saw a 112 per cent year-over-year increase to 2,540 units in January 2025, and a six per cent year-over-year increase to 857 units in February 2025.
Over a six-month period ending in February 2025, housing starts increased by 1.1 per cent to 239,382 units across Canada. But among Canada’s metropolitan areas, housing starts were down by 21 per cent year-over-year.
According to a recent RBC Economics report, lower policy interest rates set by the Bank of Canada are heating up housing demand, but this is tempered after consecutive years of major price increases. However, the sharp slowdown in population growth due to the federal government’s cuts to its immigration targets and economic headwinds — especially due to the Canada-U.S. trade war — will moderate the upward price pressure.
The impact of tariffs could dampen the housing demand and weaken market confidence, with the potential for major job losses. Tariffs could also increase the cost of materials that are crucial for building new housing.
But some of the negative impacts of the trade war could potentially be offset by deeper policy interest rate cuts by the Bank of Canada to stimulate borrowing and investment.