There was a 1.2% decrease in building construction investment in March, the latest month of data provided by Statistics Canada.
The overall decline to $14.2 billion was due to a 2% decrease in the residential sector (to $9.4 billion), partly offset by a 0.5% increase for the non-residential sector (to $4.7 billion).
Both multifamily and single-family construction decreased in March but multifamily construction investment surpassed that of single-family for the first time.
Multifamily investment was down 0.5% and well short of the $6.4 billion record set in May 2017. Single-family dropped 3.4%.
For the first quarter of 2019, there was a $2.1 billion (29.8%) year-over-year decline in investment in new singles of to $4.9 billion, representing a new record low since 2010.
Record high for commercial sector
For the commercial sector, construction investment was up for the 14th consecutive month to a record high of $2.7 billion.
This was driven by BC, particular the redevelopment of the historic post office in Vancouver which will be a mixed-use development partly occupied by Amazon.
Meanwhile, Ontario and Quebec led construction investment for the industrial sector which was up 1.3% nationwide.
