The pace of housing construction in Canada is picking up, but the country’s most populous province is pulling down the pace, new analysis shows.

Housing starts have been the strongest ever in Canada in the last four years and remain robust in much of the country this year, said a new report by the Royal Bank of Canada that analyzes the latest housing start numbers from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

However, while the rest of the country saw a bump in housing starts, Ontario saw a steep decline, with the decline centred in the Greater Toronto Area.

“This divergence is concerning, because it threatens to perpetuate severe affordability problems that exert social and economic hardship on Canadians in these regions,” the report by RBC economist Robert Hogue said.

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