Canadian investment in new housing construction increased 4.8 percent to C$3.9 billion (US$2.9 billion) in December compared with the same month in 2014, according to Statistics Canada.
The increase was mainly due to higher construction spending on apartment and apartment-condominium buildings, which rose 23.9 percent year-over-year to C$1.4 billion (US$1 billion). Spending in row house construction increased 3.4 percent to C$348 million (US$254.4 million).
Conversely, investment in single-family dwellings fell 3.4 percent year over year to C$2 billion (US$1.5 billion). Spending on semi-detached dwelling construction declined 16.2 percent to $181 million.
At the provincial level, Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec reported the largest increases.
In Ontario, spending on new residential construction rose 23.1 percent compared with December 2014 to C$1.5 billion (US$1.1 billion) in December. Higher investment in the construction of single-family dwellings as well as apartment and apartment-condominium buildings largely explained the advance.
In British Columbia, investment in new residential construction increased 12.6 percent from the same month a year earlier to C$713 million (US$521.2 million) in December. The gain was attributable to higher spending on apartment and apartment-condominium buildings, single-family dwellings and row houses.
In Quebec, investment grew 3.1 percent year over year to C$611 million (US$446.6 million). Increased spending on apartment and apartment-condominium building construction more than offset lower investment in single-family housing, semi-detached dwellings and row houses.
In contrast, Alberta registered the largest decline in spending on new housing construction in December, followed by Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
