Paul Martin's Business Update - April 9th, 2014

Apr 11, 2014, 02:33 PM

Paul Martin's Business Update - April 9th, 2014

Tough weather and political intervention appear to have conspired to slow the new home construction business in the province.

Two sets of figures – one from StatsCan and another from Canada Mortgage and Housing – offer up the same story. The StatsCanada numbers looked at building permit values for February and they showed a 25 per cent reduction in the residential category. Now, this can include renovations as well as new starts but the drop is definitely noticeable.

Similarly, CMHC updated its trend analysis and noted that housing starts – both single and multi-family – were down in both major cities.

The weather was a factor, according to their report but we should probably be looking at Ottawa’s moves to make home buying more difficult, an exercise that took place last Fall. The feds increased down payment requirements and shortened mortgage terms, forcing some people to delay their purchase. But, those who had qualified prior to the rule change hit the market in a hurry and may well have sucked up demand that would have been arriving in the market early this year.

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