Toronto, ON – Investment in building construction is almost back to pre-COVID-19 levels. Total investment in building construction increased 12 per cent to $14.9 billion in June, following a 62.2 per cent gain in May. June is 3.1 per cent lower than February for construction investment, reports Statistics Canada.
Residential construction rose 12.2 per cent to $9.4 billion in June, with gains in both single-unit and multi-unit investment. Ontario and Quebec led all provinces in growth for the month, while Saskatchewan was the only province to report a decline. Nationally, after back-to-back months of strong gains, residential investment still remained 8.6 per cent lower than February levels.
Non-residential construction investment increased 11.6 per cent to $5.5 billion. Ontario and Quebec reported strong gains, which led to national growth in all components of non-residential investment.
With strong increases in all non-residential construction projects, investment in slightly higher than the levels recorded before COVID-19.
The commercial component represented the majority of non-residential construction gains, up 114.7 per cent to $3.3 billion. Alberta and British Columbia reported the largest declines for the month with 4.2 per cent and 3.2 per cent, respectively.
The industrial (up 7.7 per cent) and institutional (up 6.6 per cent) sectors increased in June, supported by gains in Ontario and Quebec.
For the second quarter, total investment in building construction amounted to $36.3 billion, a decrease of 20 per cent from the first quarter. This is the largest quarter-over-quarter decrease since January 2010. All provinces and territories were down for the quarter, with Ontario and Quebec posting the largest declines.
Residential investment fell in the second quarter, down 24.5 per cent with both investment in multi-dwelling and single-unit dwellings. Non-residential investment decreased quarter-over-quarter, down 10.7 per cent to $13.4 billion. Declines were reported across all provinces and territories, with the largest in Ontario.