Residential construction investment down in 6 provinces

There was a decrease in Canadian construction investment in October, the latest month of data released by Statistics Canada.

The agency says that total investment in construction was down 0.5% month-over-month to $15.5 billion with the residential sector down 1% to $10.6 billion while the non-residential sector gained 0.5% to $4.9 billion.

Residential construction investment was down in 6 provinces with Ontario posting the largest decrease ($129.6 million), its first decline for four months, while BC posted its first gain (up 5.3% to $1.9 billion) after 4-monthly decreases.

The decline for residential to $5.3 billion was the result of a 1% decline for single-family units and a 0.9% decline for multi-family.

Non-residential gains
Investment in the non-residential sector rose 0.5% to $4.9 billion in October with the commercial component leading with a 1.1% increase to $2.9 billion, largely due to increases in Ontario (2.0% to $1.0 billion) and British Columbia (3.8% to $546.9 million).

There were declines though for the industrial (-0.3% to $902.4 million) and institutional (-0.4% to $1.1 billion) components in October.