Economic Development Update

The City of Ottawa Economic Development Update provides an overview of quarterly and annual economic indicators to the city’s economy. The Q1 2024 update covers the months of January, February, and March 2024. In Q1 2024, the City of Ottawa saw:

A 33.6 percent decrease in housing starts year-over-year from 1,626 to 1,080 housing starts.
Single-detached and apartment dwelling types experienced a decrease in starts year-over-year, with single detached starts down 31.9 percent and apartment starts down 44.4 percent; however, rowhouse starts increased by 56.2 percent and semi-detached starts increased by 133.3 percent.
Total construction permit value decreased by 19.8 percent year-over-year, with a 23.0 percent decrease in residential permit value and a 12.5 percent decrease in non-residential permit value.
The average housing resale price increased 2.0 percent from the previous quarter, while it increased 4.5 percent year-over-year.
The office vacancy rate decreased 0.3 percentage point from Q1 2023 to reach 12.0 percent.
The industrial vacancy rate increased 0.1 percentage points from Q1 2023 to reach 3.0 percent.
The inflation rate decreased 0.7 percentage points from the previous quarter and 3.4 percentage points year-over-year to hit 2.0 percent in Q1 2024.
The number of employed residents increased by 4.5 percent from Q1 2023 despite the unemployment rate having increased by 0.7 percentage points.

To read the complete Economic Development Update, please visit ottawa.ca.

Economic Development Update Q1 2024