Published on : Fri, 21 Oct 2005 17:24GMT
by : Lucy Andrews

VANCOUVER, Canada - The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation has said that the housing market is on the way up thanks to the low mortgage rates that are currently prevailing as well as the increasing rate of employment.

The rate of housing starts this year has grown to 230,500 new homes in September from the 206,200 new homes that were collected in August. The CMHC said that multi-family homes have increased by 17.8 percent, while single-family houses jumped by 13.8 percent. These figures point to a shift in the demand for multi-family homes. Prairies, Quebec, Ontario and B.C saw a huge rise in start up homes, the CMHC confirmed.

Vancouver's congregate vacancy rate in the current real estate survey was pegged at 1.9 percent as opposed to the 4.7 percent recorded last year. CMHC market analyst Robyn Adamache was of the opinion that this trend would continue to prevail for some time, "Congregate housing continues to expand and evolve, enabling seniors to remain independent through a wide range of tenure options and services. Expect this growth trend to continue over the next 10-15 years," Adamache observed.

However the CMHC is predicting a softening market for the next year. At the 11th annual Housing Outlook Conference in Thunder Bay, Warren Philp, CMHC Northern Ontario market analyst said that massive employment growth was needed to fuel another housing spurt and it did not look likely in the near future. Housing starts are predicted to fall by 30 percent this year and nine percent in the coming year, but Philp was optimistic that the average resale house price of $118,100 would rise to $121,000 in the next year.