London: Where detached houses rule

April 27, 2018

According to one national trend, building new, detached houses is taking second place to condo apartment construction across Canada due to demographics and higher home prices.
London, Ontario is bucking that trend.
Only four new condos began construction in London this year, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC).
In March, 122 detached houses and nearly 24 townhouse or row housing units broke ground, but no condos at all.
CMHC analyst Amran Wali said single-detached house starts held up well in the London area, with 292 starts this year, almost even with 295 in the first quarter of 2017.
Single-detached starts are well above the 10-year average, fuelled by a tight resale market. The inventory of resale homes is at a 10-year low and buyers are turning to new homes as an alternative, he explained.
The lack of condo apartment starts has led to sharp decline in overall London housing residential building numbers so far this year, however. There were 343 housing starts in the first quarter compared to 979 in same period of 2017.
Across Canada, the annualized number of housing starts dipped to 225,200 units in March from 231,000 in February. But the average over the past 12 months of 211,000 starts is close to the strongest pace since 2008, CMHC reports.