Investment in building construction, February 2020
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Released: 2020-04-21
$15.9 billion
February 2020
1.3% 
(monthly change)
Total investment in building construction increased 1.3% to $15.9 billion in February, the fourth consecutive month-over-month growth. Gains were reported in all components of residential and non-residential investment. On a constant dollar basis (2012=100), investment in building construction increased 1.1% to $13.0 billion.
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Chart 1
Investment in building construction, seasonally adjusted
Investment in residential construction
Investment in residential construction rose 1.4% to $10.7 billion in February. Investment in single-unit construction increased 1.9% to $5.2 billion. This rate of growth surpassed that observed in the multi-unit component (+0.9% to $5.6 billion), partially due to major projects in the Vancouver area. Multi-unit gains in British Columbia outweighed declines in seven other provinces.
Chart 2
Investment in residential building construction, seasonally adjusted
Infographic 1
Residential construction investment, February 2020
Investment in non-residential construction
Non-residential investment was up 1.2% to $5.1 billion in February. Ontario (+$39.4 million) and Quebec (+$29.1 million) reported the largest gains, while Alberta continued to decline, down 0.7% to $678.9 million.
The commercial component represented the majority of growth in the non-residential sector, up 1.5% to $3.0 billion nationally. Ontario (+2.7% to $1.1 billion) and Quebec (+3.5% to $650.4 million) contributed the most to the gains, which more than offset the declines reported in six provinces.
Meanwhile, investment in construction for the industrial (+1.0% to $937.9 million) and institutional (+0.6% to $1.2 billion) components also increased month over month.
Infographic 2
Non-residential construction investment, February 2020
Note to readers
Unadjusted data for the current reference month are subject to revision as a result of late responses. Data for the previous month have been revised. Seasonally adjusted data are revised for the previous two months.
Data presented in this release are seasonally adjusted and are expressed in current dollars unless otherwise stated. Using seasonally adjusted data facilitates month-to-month comparisons by removing the effects of seasonal variations. For information on seasonal adjustment, see Seasonally adjusted data – Frequently asked questions.
Monthly estimates for constant dollars are calculated using quarterly deflators from the Building Construction Price Index (table 18-10-0135-01). Typically, the first two months of a quarter use the previous quarter's price level and are revised when the new quarterly price index becomes available.
Detailed data on investment activity by type of building and type of work are now available in the unadjusted current dollar series.
Prior to January 2018, building permits for cottages with a value greater than $60,000 were automatically reclassified to structure type "single." Beginning in January 2018, building permits received from municipalities for structures coded as cottages, regardless of value, are classified to structure type "cottages."
Effective November 23, 2018, table 34-10-0175-01 contains data on both the residential and non-residential sectors. It replaced tables 34-10-0010-01, 34-10-0011-01 and 34-10-0012-01.
Products
Statistics Canada has a new Housing Market Indicators Dashboard. This web application provides access to key housing market indicators for Canada, by province and by census metropolitan area. These indicators are automatically updated with new information from monthly releases, giving users access to the latest data.
Next release
Data on investment in building construction for March will be released on May 21.
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; STATCAN.infostats-infostats.STATCAN@canada.ca) or Media Relations (613-951-4636; STATCAN.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.STATCAN@canada.ca).
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