Canada’s Building Permits Rose 8.8%. Houses Did Not.
The value of Canadian building permits issued in August was $13.6 billion, up $1.1 billion or 8.8% from July, Statistics Canada reported at 8:30 a.m. ET on October 14. In constant 2023 dollars the month was up 8.6%, and 12.4% above August 2025.
We pulled table 34-10-0292, the table the release cites, from the StatCan Web Data Service and reconciled every figure we quote against it. On the unrounded numbers, $13.57 billion is the third-highest month of the 104 we hold, January 2018 through August 2026, behind June 2026 at $14.83 billion and April 2024 at $13.83 billion. Deflate it and that ranking does not survive: in constant 2023 dollars August is the 50th of those same 104 months, the middle of the record. The 8.8% increase ranks 22nd of 103 monthly changes. A strong month, not an outlier.
The twelve-month figures say something narrower, and more durable. Over the year to August, Canada authorized 299,500 dwelling units against 305,500 in the twelve months before. What moved was which dwellings.
Single-family approvals were flat for three years, then fell 8.8% in one
A building permit is an authorization, a municipality’s approval for work to proceed. It is not a start and not a completion, so these counts describe intentions rather than homes delivered. Our rolling twelve-month totals, unadjusted:
| 12 months to | Single-family | Multi-unit | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| August 2025 | 52,982 | 252,567 | 305,549 |
| August 2026 | 48,320 | 251,147 | 299,467 |
| Change | -4,662 (-8.80%) | -1,420 (-0.56%) | -6,082 (-1.99%) |
Our rolling twelve-month totals of dwelling units created, unadjusted, from Statistics Canada table 34-10-0292.
Take the single-family column back further and the timing is the story. The twelve months to August ran 53,976 units in 2023, 53,236 in 2024 and 52,982 in 2025. Then 48,320. Three flat years, then an 8.80% drop in one, which leaves the total second-lowest in the series, 115 units above the low set in the window ending May 2026. It sits 40.0% below the December 2021 peak of 80,599, and 22.1% below the 62,003 of December 2018, before the pandemic.
Multi-unit approvals over the same year are down 0.6%. Single-family carries 76.7% of the 6,082-unit decline while making up 16.1% of the units, down from 27.0% in the twelve months to August 2021 and from 24.2% in the twelve months to August 2019, before the pandemic. The 2021 reading was itself close to a series high, so the pre-pandemic figure is the fairer comparison and it still has the share down by a third.
Canada is authorizing far fewer single-family dwellings than it used to. Dwelling units authorized by building permit, rolling 12-month total, unadjusted. Source: Statistics Canada table 34-10-0292, dwelling units created, via the StatCan Web Data Service, through August 2026.
The entire August increase came from multi-unit residential
| Component | August 2026 | Change from July |
|---|---|---|
| Total permits, Canada | $13.6 billion | +$1.1 billion, +8.8% |
| Residential | $8.5 billion | +$1.1 billion |
| Multi-unit | $5.8 billion | +$1.1 billion |
| Single-family | $2.6 billion | -$0.7 million |
| Non-residential | $5.1 billion | -$29.8 million |
| Commercial | $2.2 billion | -$380.0 million |
| Industrial | $1.1 billion | +$317.3 million |
| Institutional | $1.8 billion | +$32.9 million |
Seasonally adjusted, current dollars. Source: Statistics Canada, The Daily, Building permits, August 2026.
On the unrounded figures multi-unit residential rose $1,123.7 million, more than the $1,093.1 million national increase, with single-family at -$0.7 million and non-residential at -$29.8 million subtracting the difference.
August’s increase in residential permit value was all multi-unit. Value of residential building permits, billions of current dollars, seasonally adjusted. Source: Statistics Canada table 34-10-0292, via the StatCan Web Data Service, January 2024 to August 2026.
The release counts 21,800 multi-unit and 4,000 single-family dwellings authorized in August, and its 12.8% increase is the combined total: multi-unit went from 18,890 to 21,837 while single-family edged down from 4,017 to 3,996, seasonally adjusted.
Residential dollars rose on value per dwelling, while the shift to multi-unit worked against them
Residential permit value over the twelve months to August was $94.14 billion, up $1.44 billion or 1.6%, on 6,082 fewer authorized dwellings. Split the change per component, so single-family and multi-unit are measured separately:
| Effect | Contribution |
|---|---|
| Declared value per dwelling | +$4.85 billion |
| Number of dwellings | -$3.22 billion |
| Cross term | -$0.19 billion |
| Total change | +$1.44 billion (+1.56%) |
Our decomposition of unadjusted residential permit value and units, Statistics Canada table 34-10-0292. A blended-average convention splits the mix effect differently.
Value per dwelling is the whole increase and more. Fewer dwellings took $3.22 billion back out, and $2.88 billion of that is single-family on its own.
The mix subtracts as well. A multi-unit dwelling goes on the books at $248,894 against $654,573 for a single-family one, so a unit moving between the columns takes dollars out rather than putting them in. The shift toward multi-unit pushed residential permit value down. It rose anyway, on per-dwelling value up 4.89% for multi-unit and 5.86% for single-family.
| 12 months to | Multi-unit | Single-family |
|---|---|---|
| August 2025 | $237,299 | $618,352 |
| August 2026 | $248,894 | $654,573 |
| Change | +4.89% | +5.86% |
Declared construction value per authorized dwelling, our arithmetic on unadjusted value and units from table 34-10-0292, rolling twelve-month windows.
Run the same measure back to December 2018 and the divergence is itself a reason the mix moved. Single-family went from $449,740 to $654,573, up 45.5%. Multi-unit went from $200,342 to $248,894, up 24.2%, roughly half as fast over eight years.
Multi-unit took 69.0% of residential permit value in August, the second-highest of the 104 months behind 69.2% in April 2024. The August readings back to 2018 run 54.2%, 59.2%, 56.6%, 50.5%, 58.7%, 59.1%, 62.7%, 64.2% and 69.0%. The direction is clear and the path is not: the 50.5% in August 2021 is the second-lowest reading in the whole series.
Multi-unit approvals running at roughly 251,000 dwellings a year are the front end of Canada’s multi-unit supply, and the buildings already standing at the other end are owned and operated by companies like the ones on our page of Canadian REIT stocks.
Ontario supplied most of the multi-unit gain, and the month after has gone both ways
Ontario issued $5.1 billion of permits, up 9.4%, and led the multi-unit increase at +$696.0 million, 61.9% of the national multi-unit gain on our arithmetic. British Columbia added $189.8 million and Alberta $115.9 million, with seven provinces and two territories contributing. Non-residential was close to unchanged overall: commercial fell $380.0 million, led by Quebec at -$317.4 million, against a $317.3 million rise in industrial.
Ontario multi-unit permit value has risen by $400 million or more in a month on twelve occasions since January 2018. Eight of the twelve fell back the following month and four rose again. August leaves the province at $2.235 billion of multi-unit value, its fifth-highest month in the series.
The next read lands November 12
The month’s other Canadian reading was softer. Employment fell by 68,000 in September, 0.3%, and the unemployment rate rose a tenth of a point to 6.5%, in the September Labour Force Survey. The Bank of Canada’s policy rate is 2.25%, with its next decision on October 28. On October 13 we set out what September’s job losses did to the rate path priced in Canadian futures.
September building permits are scheduled for November 12. Until then the twelve-month picture is the one to hold: approved dwellings within 2% of last year, single-family approvals 40% below their 2021 peak, and a residential dollar total that rose only because each authorization is declared at more than it was.
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