The residential sector buoyed Canada’s overall building permits in January, according to the latest figures from the Statistics Canada.

Over the month, the value of residential permits increased by 12.7% to $5.8bn. This growth was due to the significant gains in multi-family dwelling permits at 17.1% to $3.4bn. A huge chunk of these approvals was in the census metropolitan area (CMA) of Vancouver.

The overall value of permits for single-family homes also increased in the month, up by 7% to $2.4bn.

Ontario and Quebec clocked the highest value of permits for the month at $105m and $48m, respectively, but Brantford CMA reported the most substantial increase in single-family dwelling permits at 340.9% to $41m.

Overall, the total value of building permits, including those in the non-residential sector, increased by 4% to $9.2bn. British Columbia led the gains, registering a 52.1% growth to $2.2bn.

The value of non-residential permits declined over the same month, down by 7.8% to $3.5bn. This decline was due to the 30.5% drop in the total value of institutional permits to $732m.

Industrial permits grew in the month, with their value rising by 6.8% to $682m. This improvement, however, was not able to offset the decline in other non-residential segments.

Quebec dragged the overall value of commercial permits after reporting a decline of $249m. Over the month, commercial permits hit a 0.8% decline in value to $2.1bn.

Houses Drive Growth in Building Permits by Gerv Tacadena | Canadian Real Estate Wealth