Residential construction has grown in November of 2008, with an increase of 28 %, if one compares with the same period last year. One notices that 4 005 habitations have been put under construction during the course of last month, compared to 3 126 a year earlier, in the urban centres of 10 000 inhabitants and more.
The figures have been provided by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), by means of its monthly poll.
One notices however that, from January to November included, 38 339 new construction sites have been registered and that this is at a level similar to the one that has been noticed during the same period of last year (i.e. 38 212). During this period, new construction sites of individual homes have diminished by 5 %, but those of collective housing have registered an increase of 4 %.
In November of 2008, according to the poll, new construction sites in the component of collective housing, which includes attached houses or row-houses and apartments, were seeing strong growth (65 %), if one compares with the month of November of last year.
Which leads Kevin Hughes, the principal economist at the CMHC to say that « the results of November as well as the annual accumulation indicate to us that the construction of more affordable habitations is growing in Quebec ».
Last November, important growth of new construction sites was registered, particularly in Sherbrooke and in Granby, with 67 % and 44 % respectively, compared to the same period in 2007. On the other hand, from January to November, one has noticed a less important increase even if it was still at 23 % in Sherbrooke, but Granby has registered an increase of its new construction sites in the range of 70 %.