Apartments and Condos Drive Up Housing Starts

Construction of apartments and condos outpaced single-family homes in March 2006. Toronto and Montreal in particular saw apartment starts surge last month. At the same time, single starts decreased for a second consecutive month, suggesting that the pace of new-home starts will begin to pull back.

Multiple starts, or new construction of apartment and condominium buildings, rose 18.6 per cent to 123,000 units between February and March, while construction of stand-alone houses fell 8.9 per cent to 96,700 units.