Toronto, Ontario, July 11--New home construction in Canada beat analysts' expectations with a 7.2 percent rise in June, its highest level of the year, data from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. showed on Monday.
Canadian housing starts rose to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 237,200 from a revised 221,300 units in May. Analyst had expected, on average, 220,000 starts.
CMHC's chief economist Bob Dugan said new home construction was stimulated by the fact that the popular five-year fixed mortgage rate had fallen in recent months, combined with other solid fundamentals.
Last month, urban singles increased 0.1 percent to 98,400 units, while multiple starts jumped 17 percent to 108,800 units.
Multiple-unit starts helped boost urban starts in Ontario and Quebec. However, this was partially offset by a decrease in urban starts in the Atlantic provinces, Prairies and British Columbia regions.
Rural starts in June were estimated at an annual rate of 30,000 units.
