Canada Building Permits Rise at Quickest Pace in Four Years
Contractors work on top of a condominium under construction in Toronto, Ontario.
Photographer: Brent Lewin/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Canadian building permits rose 20.5% in April compared with the month before, more than four times the expectation of economists in a Bloomberg survey.
That’s the fastest monthly pace since May 2020. Excluding the pandemic, it marked the quickest gain since March 2009. While the monthly data tends to be volatile, April’s significant jump provides a glimmer of hope that construction will rise in a country mired in a severe housing shortage.