New Housing Price Index, September 2019

The New Housing Price Index (NHPI) measures changes over time in the selling prices of new residential houses agreed upon between the contractor and the buyer at the time of the signing of the contract. It is designed to measure the changes in the selling prices of new houses where detailed specifications pertaining to each house remain the same between two consecutive periods.

The survey covers the following dwelling types: singles, semi-detached houses and townhouses or row homes. The current value of the structure is independently indexed and presented as the house series. The survey also collects contractors' estimates of the current value (evaluated at market price) of the land. These estimates are independently indexed to provide the published series for land. The index is available for Canada, the provinces, and 27 census metropolitan areas (CMAs).

The prices collected from builders and included in the index are market selling prices less value-added taxes, such as the federal goods and services tax or the provincial harmonized sales tax.

The index is not subject to revision and is not seasonally adjusted.

In addition to its monthly release, the NHPI has also been integrated into the Residential Property Price Index (RPPI), released for the first time today. The RPPI is a new quarterly series that measures changes over time in the prices of residential properties for Montréal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria. An aggregate for those CMAs is also available. The RPPI provides, for the first time, a price index for all components of the housing real estate market—new and resale—in addition to a breakdown between houses and condominium apartments.

Products

Statistics Canada has an interactive NHPI dashboard. This web application provides access to new housing prices data for Canada and 27 CMAs. The maps, charts and tables draw from information collected from respondents who provide information on Canada's new housing prices. The interactive dashboard allows users to visualize statistics on the monthly and annual movements of new housing prices and on rankings by CMA of the largest monthly price movements. This web-based application is updated every month with the release of the NHPI.

The Residential Property Price Index (RPPI) Methodology is now available. This document gives the details of the methodology used to calculate the New Housing Price Index, New Condominium Apartment Price Index, and Resale Residential Property Price Index, and how these indexes are compiled to form the Residential Property Price Index.

The infographic "What is happening to the prices of new houses in Canada?" which is part of the series Statistics Canada – Infographics (Catalogue number11-627-M), looks at recent trends in new home prices for selected CMAs surveyed.

Statistics Canada has a Housing Market Indicators Dashboard. This web application provides access to key housing market indicators for Canada, by province and by CMA. These indicators are automatically updated with new information from monthly releases, giving users access to the latest data.

For more information on the topic of housing, visit the Housing Statistics Portal.

The video "Producer Price Indexes" is available on the Statistics Canada Training Institute webpage. It provides an introduction to Statistics Canada's producer price indexes, what they are, how they are made and what they are used for.

Statistics Canada has launched the Producer Price Indexes Portal as part of a suite of portals for prices and price indexes. This web page provides users with a single point of access to a wide variety of statistics and measures related to producer prices. The portal offers an array of information on topics such as manufacturing, construction, professional services, distributive trades and financial services. The portal will be continually updated as new information becomes available.

Next release

Since we are improving the timeliness of property price indexes, the New Housing Price Index (NHPI) for November will be released at the same time as the October index, on December 20. Following this, the NHPI will be released 14 business days after the end of the reference month.