Canada Building Permits Fall 1.7% in May

By Robb M. Stewart

OTTAWA--Canadian building permits continued to pull back in May, driven by a drop in non-residential construction plans.

The total value of building permits were down 1.7% from the month before to a seasonally adjusted 12.37 billion Canadian dollars, the equivalent of US$8.73 billion, Statistics Canada said Friday.

The retreat was weaker than the 1% rise expected for the month by economists, according to TD Securities. It follows a 6.6% drop in the value of permits a month earlier and continues to roll back a strong rise in permits in March.

On a year-over-year basis, the overall value of permits issued was down 4.5%, Statistics Canada said.

After falling the previous two months, construction intentions in the residential sector rose 1.2% to C$7.68 billion. Intentions to build multifamily dwellings were up 3.3%, while permits for single-family homes dropped 2.7%.

The growth in the multi-unit component was led by British Columbia and supported by Ontario, with the largest increases were recorded in the Vancouver and Toronto metropolitan areas.

Permits for nonresidential buildings declined 6.1% to C$4.7 billion, the data agency said. Most of the weakness was in industrial building intentions, and was tempered by a rise in commercial permits.

Building permits provide an early indication of construction activity in Canada and are based on a survey of 2,400 municipalities, representing 95% of the country's population. The issuance of a permit doesn't guarantee that construction is imminent.

Housing starts in Canada came in at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 261,377 units in May, a drop of 6.1% from the prior month, the latest data from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. show. Still, the trend measure--a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts--inched up by 0.5%.

Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com

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July 10, 2026 08:50 ET (12:50 GMT)