Canada’s economy grows thanks to hot real estate market

Economy grows for fifth consecutive month in October per StatsCan.

By Andrew Joseph, Farms.com, Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

The continued hot-hot-hot housing market continues to fuel Canada’s economic growth in October and November, according to Statistics Canada.

While the Canadian economy continued its growth for the fifth consecutive month in October—with a GDP increase of 0.8 percent in the month—experts warn that it is too early to tell what, if any, the effects of the COVID-19 Omicron variant will have on things.

The October GDP rise of 0.8 percent comes on the heels of September’s 0.2 percent increase. Although September also saw a decrease within the Canadian manufacturing sector of 1.5 percent, October saw it rebound, with an increase of 1.8 percent.

In the auto industry, September saw a decline, but October showed a 47.8 percent leap forward.

In housing, the construction market finally showed an increase—1.5 percent in October, after four consecutive downward turns. But, residential housing construction jumped 2.0 percent, offsetting a drop in single-family-home construction.

In real estate’s rental and leasing market, it jumped 0.8 percent—it’s largest increase since December 2020. And, thanks to increase home sales, agents and brokers saw an overall increase of 8.8 percent. Adjacent, the legal industry also increased by 1.6 percent, as it works quite handily with the real estate market.

StatsCan says that early indications for November show an overall increase of 0.3 percent.