Canada building permits increased to the highest level since May 2007 to $7.0 billion in May 2012. May’s permits were 7.4% higher than in April after April’s permits dropped4.4%. The gain was due to large increases in both the residential and non-residential sectors. Permits rose in 17 of the 34 census metro areas for May.

Residential building permits increased 8.5% to $4.1 billion after 4 months of declines. Multi-family permits gained 17.7% to $1.8 billion while single-family permits were up 2.1% to $2.3 billion. The increase in single-family permits came after 4 months of decreases. Nationwide, municipalities authorized over 13% more permits from April to 18,682 new dwellings in May. Multi-family dwellings jumped 22% to 11,801 units while single-family dwellings rose 0.9% to 6,881 units.

The non-residential building permits rose 6.0% to $2.9 billion after a 7.0% decline the previous month. The institutional component reported permits jumping 69.4% to $945 million after falling 42.7% in April. However, the commercial component’s permits dropped 12.4% to $1.4 billion in May. The industrial component also declined, down 4.5% to $549 million after a 40% increase in April.

Source: Statistics Canada