The provincial decline was led by Metro Vancouver, where starts fell nearly 22% on fewer multi-family units
The pace of new home construction in B.C. cooled in February with a second consecutive pullback in housing starts. Starts in the province's urban areas fell nearly 12% from January to a seasonally adjusted annualized pace of 22,700 units to mark a near one-year low.
While activity was still modestly higher than a year ago, recent declines have pushed the underlying trend lower, suggesting an early-year softening in the residential building cycle.
As is often the case, apartment and townhome activity was the swing factor in February.
Annualized multi-family starts fell 22% from January to 13,950 units, offsetting a 12% gain in detached starts, which rose to a pace of 8,775 units.
The provincial decline was led by Metro Vancouver, where starts fell nearly 22% on fewer multi-family units.
Despite the softening early-year trend, provincial housing starts still outpaced 2013 over the first two months of the year by about 15%, led by growth in Metro Vancouver, Kelowna and Kamloops.
Judging from January's surge in building permits, monthly activity will likely rebound partially over the following couple of months but will be compared against a same-period surge in 2012 construction. Year-over-year growth will moderate and annual starts including rural activity are forecast to hold in line with 2013 performance near 27,000 units.
New construction in Metro Vancouver is expected to decline slightly as builders remain cautious in response to elevated inventory. In contrast, starts are expected to turn higher this year in most other areas of the province as inventory overhang diminishes and demand perks up in recreational markets and economic growth drives activity in the north.
Builders and developers are expected to lift production as economic conditions improve.
Starts will trend higher through 2016 but remain below the cycle high observed in 2007. •
