Housing starts in Waterloo Region rose slightly in October due to increased construction of apartment units and townhouses.
Builders started 305 housing units in the Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo census metropolitan area last month, up from 281 in October 2010, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said Tuesday.
Three apartment buildings, all in Kitchener and Waterloo and all targeted to renters, boosted apartment starts to 171, up from 155 a year ago.
Builders started 26 townhouses, up from 19 in 2010. Foundations were poured for 98 single-detached homes, down from 107 in October a year ago.
There were 2,567 housing starts in the first 10 months of the year, up from 2,472 in the same period a year ago. That includes 1,264 apartment units, up from 885 in the first 10 months of 2010.
“Strong demand from students, immigrants and downsizing baby boomers led to the surge in apartment construction this year,” Erica McLerie, the corporation’s senior market analyst, said in a news release.
Nationally, the housing corporation said a drop in new construction of detached single houses in cities pushed the seasonally adjusted rate of housing starts lower in October.
There were 207,600 housing starts last month, down slightly from 208,800 units in September, it said.
The housing agency said multiple-unit housing starts were still high in urban areas but overall housing starts are expected to remain moderate, in line with demographic fundamentals.
Urban single-house starts were down nine per cent, while multiple-unit urban starts were up by 1.7 per cent.
Across the country, urban housing starts were down sharply in the Atlantic region and Quebec, up slightly in British Columbia, while Ontario and the prairie region saw strong increases.
Source: The Record