Canadian municipalities issued a record high of $9.3 billion worth of building permits in April.
British Columbia led the gains with builders keen to beat the rise in development costs being introduced in Metro Vancouver the following month; but there were gains for six provinces overall.
Statistics Canada says that the national gain of $1.2 billion in April was the largest monthly gain since May 2007.
For the residential sector, multifamily permits saw a 24.5% rise to $5.9 billion in April, while the single-family sector gained 5.1% to $2.2 billion.
British Columbia contributed $2.4 billion to the national total, with multifamily gaining $880 million in the Vancouver CMA alone.
Ontario led the gain for single-family with a $67 million increase but Quebec posted the largest overall decrease, of $147 million.
Non-residential
For the non-residential sector, there was a 1.1% increase in permits issued compared to the previous month.
That means an April total of $3.4 billion, with industrial building intentions gaining across nine provinces. A food processing plant in the London CMA accounted for much of this.
Following a strong March, institutional and commercial permit issuance was lower in April.
