Permit values drop 9% in March
The total value of building permits issued across the country dropped sharply in March, in part due to inflated activity in February.
Permit values fell 9.3 percent to $11.7 billion, mainly due to a drop of nearly 30 percent in the total value of non-residential sector permits. Two large hospital permits issued in February pushed that month's total to a record high.
The value of residential permits issued in March increased 4.7 percent to $7.9 billion nationally.
Construction intentions for single family homes were up 3.3 percent, reaching the highest value since March 2021, with Ontario registering the largest gain (+12.0 percent).
The value of multi-family building permits rose 6.0 percent nationally, helped by high value projects such as a $457-million permit for the Ravine condos in the city of Toronto.
Meanwhile, the total value of non-residential sector permits fell 29.5 percent in March, largely due to the institutional component (-58.5 percent) returning to more normal levels after two large hospital permits were issued in February. Commercial building intentions in March saw a 7.2 percent decline, while industrial construction (+2.8 percent) was the only component to post an increase.
First quarter of 2022 reaches record high
The total value of building permits in the first quarter of 2022 increased 5.3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2021, to $34.9 billion.
The non-residential sector jumped 18.8 percent in the first quarter of 2022 to a record high of $12.5 billion, largely due to the institutional component (+58.6 percent) which saw two hospital permits issued in Vancouver and Quebec, valued at a combined $1.9 billion. The industrial (+15.3 percent) and commercial (+2.0 percent) components also saw gains for the quarter.
The residential sector saw a 1.0 percent decline in the first quarter of 2022 compared with the fourth quarter of 2021, with a decrease in multi-family permits (-3.0 percent) more than offsetting a slight gain in single-family construction intentions (+1.3 percent).