Canada Building Permits Rise More than Expected in July

The value of building permits in Canada rose 3 percent from a year earlier to CAD 8.3 billion in July 2019, rebounding from a downwardly revised 3.1 percent fall in the previous month and beating market expectations of a 2.9 percent gain. The largest increase was in commercial permits, which advanced 6.7 percent to CAD 2.0 billion, offsetting three consecutive months of declines. The rise was largely attributable to high-value permits for office buildings in the census metropolitan area of Vancouver. Additionally, the value of residential permits went up 2.2 percent to CAD 5.1 billion, driven by multi-family dwelling (4.2 percent to CAD 2.8 billion) led by led by Ontario (+CAD 95 million) and Quebec (+CAD 72 million) while single-family dwellings (-0.2 percent to CAD 2.3 billion). Also, institutional permits rose 7.6 percent to CAD 0.7 billion. Meanwhile, industrial permits dropped 6.9 percent to CAD 0.6 billion.