The international economic downturn has greatly impacted the market in condo construction harder than almost any other part of the real estate market in Canada. While there has been an rising number of property starts in rural areas, and a strong, continuous growth in the building of single occupancy homes, there has been a marked reduction in the number of starts of condominiums and apartments in areas all around Canada like downtown Toronto condos.

There was general decline of 1.5 percent, during March, in the amount of real estate starts, largely due to the drop in multiple family building construction. This was the first decrease in house starts during 2010. January and February had healthy development rates of 7.5% and 6%, respectively. There were 189,000 starts in January and 200,400 in February, however only 197,300 in March.

It is in major cities that the fall in house starts has been the most severe. Some rural areas have proceeded to see an growth in construction, even as the national average has tipped over into a decline. There was a slide of 4.2 percent in metropolitan starts in March, while rural starts climbed from February’s 17,600 to a total of 22,100 in March. It is the change in building of multiple occupancy dwellings, which are largely built in urban centers, that has had an substantial effect on these figures. Rural properties are often single family homes.

There was an increase during March in the amount of starts for single occupancy buildings, of 6.9 percent, while starts of multiple unit dwellings fell by 15.2 percent during the same month. March marked the eleventh month in a row that single residence starts had increased, taking them from their lowest point of the recession, in the previous April, to the highest they have been over the last four years.

There has been a significant reduction in multiple unit building construction in the Toronto area over a few consecutive months, with a marked drop in popularity in building high rise apartment buildings and Toronto condominiums. This decline was then evened out by an increase in starts of single occupancy buildings in rows and low rises in the Toronto market, however, indicating the overall picture nationwide. Shaun Hildebrand, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation expert in market analysis for the Toronto segment has expressed a belief that things would change in the near future. He said that building of condominiums was likely to increase shortly, in reaction to the rising desire for affordable accommodation in the area.

Starts of multiple family buildings do often fluctuate more wildly than those of single family homes, with variations occurring far more rapidly. Bob Dugan, chief market analysis economist for the CMHC (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation) believes the market for condominiums in Canada to be a variable one.

There was a fall of 0.5 percent in February in building permit demands, specifically impacting requests for multiple unit buildings, which was an important element in the decrease in housing starts of these buildings in March.

Author Bio: Stefan Hyross specializes in writing about downtown Toronto condos for YannickPicard.ca. If you would like further details on Toronto condominiums or to search for available units please visit the website.

Category: Real Estate
Keywords: real estate, home buying, home selling