Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) counted 143,929 homes in September that have approved building permits and no construction started.
That count, reported alongside CMHC’s figures for centres of 50,000 or more, rose 1.1% from August.
Compared with a year ago, starts have fallen. Actual housing starts in centres of 10,000 or more were down 11% year-over-year in September, at 19,984 units compared with 22,375. From January through September, those centres recorded 170,964 starts, 4% behind the same period in 2025.
“As outlined in CMHC’s latest Housing Supply Report (HSR), a key risk for Canada now is not building enough during this period of softening housing markets across the country,” said Aled ab Iorwerth, deputy chief economist at CMHC.
“Canada still faces a long-term housing supply gap and unless housing construction levels increase, improvements in housing affordability since 2023 will be difficult to sustain,” he said.
Right now, starts are down from last year.
The headline figures make that harder to see: the seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of starts across Canada rose 3% in September, to 248,896 units from 242,223 in August. CMHC’s six-month trend, a moving average of that rate, barely budged, and landed at 250,411.
CMHC uses the trend alongside the monthly SAAR to account for considerable swings in the monthly figure. Multi-unit starts largely drive the market, and they can vary widely from one month to the next.
Homes already underway are holding steady. There were 371,617 units under construction in centres of 50,000 or more in September, flat from August. Completions fell 0.9% to 17,398 units.
The regional picture is uneven. “Of Canada’s four most populous provinces, only Quebec has seen modest gains in housing starts for 2026 and each of the seven major centres covered in the HSR are behind 2025’s pace for new home construction,” ab Iorwerth said.
Montreal’s six-month trend fell 8% in September on lower multi-unit starts. Vancouver’s rose 6% on higher multi-unit starts. Toronto’s was flat, with single-detached and multi-unit trends offsetting each other.
CMHC will release October’s housing starts data on November 17.
