Insight
Ottawa–Gatineau's housing starts are now 85% multi-unit
Multi-unit housing accounted for 85.1% of Ottawa–Gatineau starts, while 60.6% of all starts were rental-intended.
- Published
- Data
- Trailing 12 months ending June 2026
Ottawa–Gatineau recorded 13,236 housing starts over the trailing 12 months ending June 2026. Only 1,967 were single-detached homes.
The other 11,269 starts—85.1% of the total—were apartments, row homes or semi-detached homes.
Separate tenure data gives the market a second defining number: 60.6% of all starts were rental-intended. Building form and tenure overlap, but they are not the same measure. Not every apartment is rental, and rental-intended starts can appear in more than one building form.
The housing mix has changed materially since 2019. In the 12 months ending December 2019, multi-unit housing accounted for 8,186 of 11,203 starts, or 73.1%. By June 2026, multi-unit starts were 37.7% higher than that earlier total, while single-detached starts were 34.8% lower.
The latest data does not point uniformly upward or downward. Overall starts and completions declined slightly. Authorized units and pending starts increased. Single-dwelling permit value rose sharply, while multiple-dwelling permit value and residential construction investment fell.
Ottawa–Gatineau is a large construction market with a more multi-unit housing mix than it had six years earlier—and a current set of indicators that needs to be read one measure at a time.
The current mix is 85% multi-unit and 60.6% rental-intended
The longer history separates the change in mix from short-term movement:
| Trailing 12 months ending | Single-detached starts | Multi-unit starts | Multi-unit share |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 2019 | 3,017 | 8,186 | 73.1% |
| December 2021 | 4,003 | 9,277 | 69.9% |
| December 2023 | 1,858 | 10,135 | 84.5% |
| June 2026 | 1,967 | 11,269 | 85.1% |
The path was not linear. Single-detached starts reached a trailing 12-month high of 4,059 in September 2021 before falling below 2,000. Multi-unit starts reached 12,121 in April 2023 and have since eased to 11,269.
The latest dwelling shares show what that 85.1% multi-unit total contains:
- apartments: 67.2% of starts
- row homes: 15.6%
- semi-detached homes: 2.3%
- single-detached homes: 14.9%
The separate tenure measure shows that 60.6% of all starts were rental-intended over the same period. The apartment and rental shares should not be added together. Read side by side, they show that Ottawa–Gatineau's recent construction was both predominantly multi-unit and majority rental-intended.
Ottawa–Gatineau is large by total volume and mid-field per capita
Ottawa–Gatineau's estimated 2025 population was 1.70 million, fifth largest among the 16 census metropolitan areas tracked here.
Its raw construction totals were also substantial. The market ranked sixth for housing starts, completions, authorized units, pending starts and residential permit value.
Population-adjusted measures put that scale in context:
| Measure | Ottawa–Gatineau | Rank among 16 markets |
|---|---|---|
| Housing starts per 1,000 residents | 7.79 | 10th |
| Completions per 1,000 residents | 7.32 | 7th |
| Units under construction per 1,000 residents | 12.52 | 7th |
| Authorized units per 1,000 residents | 9.48 | 7th |
| Pending starts per 1,000 residents | 3.76 | 8th |
The distinction is straightforward. Ottawa–Gatineau is one of the larger Canadian construction markets by raw volume, but most of its per-capita measures sit near the middle of this 16-market field.
That does not make one set of measures more valid than the other. Total units describe market scale. Units per 1,000 residents describe construction intensity relative to population. A manufacturer assessing addressable volume may care about both.
Starts and completions edged lower
Ottawa–Gatineau's 13,236 housing starts were 2.8% lower than in the preceding 12 months. Its 12,447 completions were down 4.1%.
The market nevertheless had 21,284 homes under construction at the end of June 2026, up 3.6% from one year earlier.
That construction stock has changed more noticeably over the longer history. Ottawa–Gatineau had 12,268 units under construction in December 2019. The count rose above 20,000 in 2022 and reached a monthly high of 21,805 in October 2023. The June 2026 total remained close to that high.
These are three different measures:
- starts count units entering construction during a period
- completions count units reaching completion during a period
- units under construction count work in progress at a point in time
They describe connected stages of activity, but they are not matched-project cohorts. The 13,236 starts and 12,447 completions in the latest 12-month window should not be subtracted to estimate future supply.
Authorized units rose while starts declined
Residential building permits authorized 16,109 dwelling units over the trailing 12 months ending June 2026. That was 7.4% more than in the preceding 12 months, even as housing starts declined 2.8%.
Ottawa–Gatineau also had 6,393 pending starts at the end of June 2026—units with residential permits issued but no recorded housing start. The pending count was 20.9% higher than one year earlier.
The contrast is useful, but it is not a forecast. A permitted unit is not yet a housing start, and a pending unit does not come with a start date. Projects can move on different schedules, change or not proceed.
The figures establish a narrower point: approval-stage unit counts increased while the latest trailing total of recorded starts edged lower. They do not establish what starts will do next.
Permit dollars split sharply by dwelling type
Ottawa–Gatineau recorded approximately $3.38 billion in residential building permit value over the trailing 12 months ending June 2026.
The headline total increased 2.5% in nominal terms. After using Statistics Canada's constant-dollar series, it declined 1.7%.
The result was not evenly distributed across dwelling types:
| Permit-value measure | Change from preceding 12 months |
|---|---|
| Single-dwelling, nominal | +22.7% |
| Single-dwelling, constant dollars | +17.6% |
| Multiple-dwelling, nominal | −6.1% |
| Multiple-dwelling, constant dollars | −10.0% |
Single-dwelling permit value therefore strengthened from a smaller part of a market whose recent housing starts remained overwhelmingly multi-unit. Multiple-dwelling permit value weakened even though apartments, rows and semi-detached homes still accounted for 85.1% of starts.
This is not necessarily a contradiction. Permit values and housing starts measure different things, and permit timing does not match start timing exactly. Dollar values also depend on the value and composition of authorized projects, not only the number of units.
The nominal-versus-real difference matters too. Ottawa–Gatineau's residential construction price measure rose 3.8% over the latest four quarters compared with the preceding four. A modest increase in current-dollar permit value became a decline after price adjustment.
Construction investment was the weakest current measure
Residential construction investment declined 8.9% nominally and 12.9% after price adjustment over the trailing 12 months ending June 2026.
The real decline ranked 15th among the 16 markets. Only one tracked market recorded a larger decrease on that measure.
Investment measures spending on construction work, not permits issued or units started. It can therefore move differently from authorization and unit counts. In Ottawa–Gatineau's latest data:
- authorized units increased 7.4%
- pending starts increased 20.9%
- housing starts declined 2.8%
- completions declined 4.1%
- real residential investment declined 12.9%
Putting those figures beside one another is more informative than forcing them into a single market score. Approval-stage counts were higher; recorded construction flows were slightly lower; price-adjusted investment was materially lower.
Ottawa–Gatineau requires one geography caveat
Ottawa–Gatineau is the only tracked CMA that crosses Ontario and Quebec. That affects how some Statistics Canada series are assembled.
Building permit values and investment in building construction are published as separate Ontario and Quebec parts. This publication sums both parts to produce the CMA total.
The residential building construction price index is different: Statistics Canada publishes the relevant index for only one provincial part of the CMA. That available part is used for Ottawa–Gatineau's 3.8% price-growth measure.
The limitation does not affect the housing-start, completion or under-construction counts reported for the full CMA. It does mean the price series should be read as the published proxy described in the methodology, not as a blended Ontario–Quebec index.
The Ottawa–Gatineau reading
Ottawa–Gatineau's latest profile is not a simple growth or contraction story.
The durable change is in market mix. Multi-unit housing rose from 73.1% of starts in the 12 months ending December 2019 to 85.1% in the 12 months ending June 2026. More than 60% of the latest starts were rental-intended.
The current indicators then split:
- starts and completions were slightly lower
- the under-construction stock remained above 21,000 units
- authorized and pending unit counts increased
- single-dwelling permit value rose
- multiple-dwelling permit value and real construction investment declined
For businesses serving the market, the evidence supports two separate observations. Ottawa–Gatineau offers meaningful absolute construction volume, and its recent project mix is heavily multi-unit. The same evidence does not support treating higher pending or authorized counts as a promise of future activity.
The most defensible conclusion is also the most specific: Ottawa–Gatineau is building a different mix of housing than it was in 2019, while its latest construction indicators remain divided by stage, dwelling type and price adjustment.
About the data
Figures are based on official Statistics Canada and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation data compiled by Construction Market Intelligence. Unless otherwise stated, current flow measures use the trailing 12 months ending June 2026. Population-normalized measures use the 2025 population estimate, and stock measures refer to June 2026.
Permit values are shown in nominal and constant-dollar terms. Authorized units, pending starts and units under construction are descriptive measures, not forecasts of future starts or completions.
Explore the Ottawa–Gatineau construction market
See homes under construction rankings