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April 21, 2020BUILDING CONSTRUCTION, FEBRUARY 2020 Total residential and non-residential construction
Investment in Nova Scotia building construction increased 4.6 per cent in February 2020 (seasonally adjusted) compared to January 2020. Halifax monthly building construction rose 2.3 per cent in February 2020
Nationally, investment in building construction rose 1.3 per cent in February 2020. Newfoundland and Labrador reported the strongest monthly gain while Alberta reported the largest monthly decline.
Year-to-date (Jan-Feb20 vs Jan-Feb19, seasonally adjusted), building construction investment was down 2.0 per cent in Nova Scotia. Halifax construction activity was up 3.2 per cent. National building construction investment was up 10.8 per cent with six provinces reporting growth over January-February 2019. The fastest growth was reported in Manitoba (+20.1 per cent) followed by Quebec (+19.7 per cent) and Prince Edward Island (+17.9 per cent). The declines over this period were reported in Newfoundland and Labrador (-25.7 per cent), Saskatchewan (-22.2 per cent), New Brunswick (-20.4 per cent) and Nova Scotia (-2.0 per cent).
Total Nova Scotia building construction investment was $293.0 million in February. In recent years, Halifax has accounted for a rising share of construction activity in the province, particularly for residential investment. Halifax building construction totaled $172.2 million in February, while there was $120.8 million in building construction outside of Halifax.
Residential construction
In February 2020, residential construction investment (seasonally adjusted) in Nova Scotia rose 6.5 per cent to $237.7 million. Halifax residential construction increased 3.3 per cent to $144.9 million.
National residential construction increased 1.4 percent month-to-month as seven provinces reported higher residential construction investment in February. The fastest gain was in Newfoundland and Labrador, while the largest decline was in Manitoba.
Year-to-date (Jan-Feb20 vs Jan-Feb19) residential construction investment (seasonally adjusted) was down 3.9 per cent in Nova Scotia. Halifax's residential construction was up 3.7 per cent.
National residential construction was up 11.8 per cent. Six provinces reported growth for the period, with Quebec (+20.6 per cent) and Manitoba (+17.4 per cent reporting largest percentage increase. Saskatchewan (-31.6 per cent) and Newfoundland and Labrador (-31.1 per cent) reported the largest decline over the January-February 2019.
Lower renovations outside of Halifax was the largest factor in the decline compared to January-February 2019. In January-February 2020, New construction is up for single and multiple dwelling units except multiple dwellings outside of Halifax.
Non-residential construction
In February, non-residential building construction declined 2.8 per cent to $55.3 million in Nova Scotia (seasonally adjusted). In Halifax, non-residential construction was down 2.9 per cent to $27.3 million.
National non-residential building construction rose 1.2 per cent in February. Six provinces reported monthly gains, with the fastest growth reported in Prince Edward Island (+5.2 per cent). Nova Scotia reported the largest monthly decline (-2.8 per cent).
Year-to-date (Jan-Feb20 vs Jan-Feb19) Nova Scotia's non-residential construction (seasonally adjusted) is up 6.7 per cent. Halifax's non-residential construction is up 0.2 per cent year-to-date.
National non-residential construction investment rose 8.6 per cent. The fastest growth was reported in Prince Edward Island (+37.4 per cent) and Manitoba (+24.5 per cent). The fastest decline was reported in Newfoundland and Labrador (-17.8 per cent) and Alberta (-13.0 per cent).
Year-to-date (Jan-Feb20 vs Jan-Feb19) Nova Scotia non-residential building construction increases are concentrated in Halifax commercial projects and commercial and institutional/government projects in outside of Halifax. Industrial non-residential building construction is lower both in and outside of Halifax.
Statistics Canada. Table 34-10-0175-01 Investment in Building Construction
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