Building permit values dropped by almost $426 million in January, propelled by a significant decline in construction activity in Ontario.

Permit valued reached $12.8 billion for the month.

Construction intentions for residential buildings dropped by $312.7 million (-3.4%) to $8.8 billion in January after rising by $1.7 billion in December 2024. Overall, the multi-family component declined by $424.2 million in January 2025, while the single-family component increased by $111.4 million.

Ontario's multi-family component (-$738.5 million) led the decline in January, after being a significant contributor to residential sector gains in the previous month.

New Brunswick (+$195.9 million) and Quebec (+$186.3 million) partially offset residential sector losses in January. The monthly gains in New Brunswick's residential sector were due to the multi-family component (+$199.7 million) and were concentrated in the Fredericton census metropolitan area (CMA) (+$83.9 million) and in the Moncton CMA (+$78.5 million).

Quebec's residential sector growth was also driven by the multi-family component (+$139.8 million), fuelled by gains in the Montréal CMA (+$160.2 million), and supported by the province's single-family component (+$46.5 million).

Across Canada, municipalities issued permits for 23,500 multi-family dwellings and 4,900 single-family dwellings in January, down 3.7% from the previous month, but up 37.4% on a year-over-year basis.

Meanwhile, the value of non-residential building permits decreased by $113.0 million (-2.7%) to $4.0 billion in January, a fourth consecutive monthly decrease.

The industrial component (-$285.0 million) drove the decline, followed by the institutional component (-$87.4 million). The commercial component (+$259.4 million) offset some of those declines.

January declines in the industrial component were led by Ontario (-$204.7 million) and Alberta (-$74.6 million).

The decrease in the institutional component in January was driven by British Columbia (-$136.7 million) and Alberta (-$74.9 million), while New Brunswick (+$70.9 million) and Nova Scotia (+$62.0 million) mitigated the decline.

Gains in commercial construction intentions in January were led by Alberta (+$153.3 million) and New Brunswick (+$95.4 million).

Among all the provinces, Ontario recorded the largest month-over-month contraction at -$771 million.