A growing number of immigrants and new arrivals from other provinces are snapping up new homes in Winnipeg and helping to prolong the city's eight-year home-building boom, industry officials say.
Although there doesn't appear to be anyone who tracks new-home purchases by immigrants, there's anecdotal evidence to suggest they're becoming a growing force in the new-homes market in Manitoba.
Officials with two local home-building companies -- Randall Homes and Qualico Developments -- said they've definitely seen an increase in the number of new and recent arrivals who are buying new homes in Winnipeg.
"We're getting people from all over (the world)," Randall Homes salesman Menno Friesen said, citing the case of a professional engineer visiting from Somalia who's buying a newer home in Richmond West for his three children to live in while they're attending the University of Manitoba.
He said he has also sold homes to recent arrivals from India, Asia, and Eastern Europe, as well as to former Winnipeggers returning from Alberta.
It's a similar story with Winnipeg's largest homebuilder -- Qualico Developments.
"There is a lot of that (immigrants buying new homes)," said manager Ken Braun.
"These people are adjusting well and are in the workforce," Braun said. "And they're not buying starter homes. They're buying what we refer to as move-up homes."
Braun and Friesen were commenting after Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. issued new figures Tuesday that show Winnipeg's new-homes market continues to rack up healthy numbers, despite significant slowdowns in other parts of the country.
The figures show that while single-family starts were down by three per cent in August in Winnipeg and 10 surrounding communities, they were still running 3.7 per cent ahead of last year's pace after the first eight months of this year.
Nationally, CMHC said while a surge in condominium construction in Ontario helped to boost Canada's housing-start totals for August -- they climbed to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 211,000 units from 186,500 units in July -- home-building was weaker in most other regions of the country.
It also said urban and rural starts in Canada were running 4.3 per cent behind last year's pace after the first eight months of 2008.
Robert Kavcic, an economist with BMO Capital Markets, predicted that softening economic conditions, such as job losses and declining consumer confidence, point "to further housing market weakness" in the months ahead.
Other figures released Tuesday by WinnipegREALTORS Association show it's not just the new-homes market that's holding up well this year in Winnipeg.
While sales of existing homes were down six per cent in August, they were still running less than one per cent behind last year's pace after the first eight months of the year, the association said.
"They really are holding up very well," WRA president Darlene Clair said in an interview. "We're just moving towards a more balanced market, and balance is good."
Jeff Powell, CMHC's senior market analyst for Manitoba, said he's not surprised that the single-family homes market continues to churn out healthy numbers.
"There was a lot of pent-up demand from the late 1990s... and the length and strength of the current economic expansion also supported that (a strong demand for new homes)," Powell said.
He and Wilf Falk, the province's chief statistician, said they also aren't surprised to hear that new immigrants may be helping to fuel the demand for new homes.
Falk said Statistics Canada figures show that more than 70 per cent of adult immigrants (25 years of age and older) who came to Manitoba in 2006 were highly educated or had skills that were in high demand here.
"So it would have been easier for them to get jobs," he said.
And that, coupled with low interest rates and extremely low vacancy rates within the rental market, would have had many of them looking at buying a home, rather than renting, Falk said.
murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca
With files from CP
Lots of new numbers
Tuesday was a busy day for housing statistics, with CMHC issuing August and year-to-date sales numbers for the Winnipeg CMA's (Census Metropolitan Area's) new-homes market, and WinnipegREALTORS Association updating the city's resale homes market.
Here are the highlights:
NEW HOMES MARKET:❚ Total starts (single and multi-family): Down 37.2 per cent in August (240 units vs. 382 in August of last year), and down 14.7 per cent for the first eight months (1,991 units vs. 2,335).
❚ Single-family starts: Down three per cent in August (195 units vs. 201), but up 3.7 per cent year to date (1,297 vs. 1,251).
❚ Multi-family starts: Down 75.1 per cent in August (45 units vs. 181), and down 36 per cent year-to-date (694 vs. 1,084).
❚ "Single-detached construction continues to be the pillar of strength for local builders. The August result leaves the Winnipeg CMA on track for the 1,950 starts forecast by CMHC." -- Jeff Powell, CMHC's senior market analyst for Manitoba.
RESALE HOMES MARKET
❚ Unit sales: Down six per cent in August (1,168 vs. 1,239 in August 2007), but down less than one per cent for the first eight months of the year (9,392 vs. 9,443 for the same period last year).
❚ Dollar volume of sales: Up five per cent in August ($218.9 million vs. $208.8 million) and up 14 per cent year to date ($1.83 billion vs. $1.6 billion).
❚ Active listings: Over 2,900 in August, which was on par with July when listings were the highest they've been in several years.
Sources: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. and Winnipeg REALTORS Association
