Starts are the earliest reliable signal of what will eventually reach the resale or rental market as new-build inventory — and CMHC's own supply target puts the current pace well short.
Headline figure
229,074
The seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of housing starts across Canada in July 2026, down 5% from June's rate. Actual starts in centres of 10,000-plus population were 18,834 in July — down 19% from 23,155 a year earlier.
What the data says
CMHC's June 2026 release, dated July 16, 2026, put the national SAAR at 238,971 units, down 6% from May's 253,083, with actual starts in 10,000-plus centres down 13% year-over-year (20,265 versus 23,292). One month later, the July 2026 release, dated August 18, 2026, restated June's SAAR at 240,773 — not identical to the figure CMHC itself had published a month earlier — and reported July's own SAAR at 229,074, a further 5% decline.
That restatement is not an error to quietly smooth over. CMHC revises its seasonally adjusted figures as more data comes in, and a page built to last should say so rather than presenting one month's SAAR as though it were a fixed, final number.
| Metric | June 2026 | July 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| SAAR, all areas | 238,971 (as first reported) | 229,074 |
| June SAAR, as restated the following month | — | 240,773 |
| Actual starts, centres 10,000+ | 20,265 (−13% YoY) | 18,834 (−19% YoY) |
| Year-to-date starts | — | 131,851 (−4% YoY) |
Sources: CMHC, housing starts and construction data, June 2026, released July 16, 2026; CMHC, housing starts and construction data, July 2026, released August 18, 2026. The June SAAR differs between the two releases because CMHC revises seasonally adjusted figures as later data arrives.
CMHC's own stated need is 430,000 to 480,000 new homes annually through 2035 to restore housing affordability. A SAAR of 229,074 — well under half that range — is a monthly snapshot, not an annual starts total, but it illustrates the scale of the gap between what is being started now and what CMHC itself says the country needs. July's release also reported the pipeline behind starts: 373,091 units under construction, up 0.6% month-over-month, and 141,480 units with approved permits but not yet started, up 3% — a real backlog of approved supply that has not yet broken ground.
For an agent, that backlog matters as a forward indicator: permits approved but unstarted, and units under construction but uncompleted, are inventory that will eventually list or lease. See population growth and household formation for the demand side of this same supply question, and vacancy rates your investor clients ask about for where that supply gap is already showing up in rental markets.
Starts data is volatile month to month and gets revised, so quote the year-to-date figure (down 4% through July) for a steadier read than any single SAAR, and be explicit that a monthly SAAR is an annualized projection of one month's pace, not an actual annual count.
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