54% increase reported in Canada in projects under construction at Q2 2024

These record-high project and room counts represent a 17 per cent increase in projects and an 8 per cent increase in rooms year-over-year (YOY).

There continues to be a swell of projects under construction in Canada, up an impressive 54 per cent by projects and 51 per cent by rooms YOY, with 80 projects/10,603 rooms at the Q2 close. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months, at Q2, stand at 80 projects/9,249 rooms, while projects in early planning stand at 162 projects/20,445 rooms, for a 20 per cent and 1 per cent YOY increase, respectively.

Chain scale segments with the largest number of projects in Canada’s total pipeline at the Q2 close include the upper midscale segment with 131 projects/13,822 rooms, accounting for 41 per cent of the project and 34 per cent of the rooms in the country’s total pipeline, and the upscale chain scale with 57 projects/7,850 rooms. Projects in the midscale segment grew an impressive 56 per cent by projects YOY and 51 per cent by rooms YOY at Q2, reaching a new record-high of 42 projects with 3,546 rooms. The upper upscale segment also reached record highs at Q2, to close the quarter standing at 21 projects and 4,770 rooms, up 40 per cent by projects YOY and 31 per cent by rooms YOY.

Provinces with the most projects in the pipeline in Canada at Q2 are dominated by Ontario, which accounts for 59 per cent of the projects and 60 per cent of the rooms in the total pipeline and reaching record-high counts of 189 projects/24,228 rooms. Next is British Columbia with a record-high 59 projects, accounting for 8,439 rooms. Together the two provinces account for 77 per cent of the projects and 81 per cent of the rooms in Canada’s total pipeline at Q2. Distantly following is Quebec with 21 projects/2,442 rooms, and Alberta with 18 projects/1,822 rooms.

The top cities in Canada at the Q2 close are led by Toronto with 68 projects/9,532 rooms, a new record-high project count that claims 24 per cent of all the rooms in Canada’s total construction pipeline. Following distantly are Vancouver with 21 projects/4,075 rooms, Montreal with 17 projects/2,062 rooms, Niagara Falls with 15 projects accounting for 4,244 rooms, and Ottawa-Hull, also reaching a record-high project count at Q2, with 14 projects/1,992 rooms. These five cities account for 42 per cent of the projects and 54 per cent of the rooms in the total pipeline.

Six new hotels with 815 rooms opened in Canada during the first half of 2024, with an additional 20 new hotels/2,129 rooms scheduled to open before year-end. LE’s total new hotel openings forecast for 2024 anticipates 26 new hotels and 2,944 rooms will open by year-end.

In 2025, LE analysts forecast another 37 new hotels/4,055 rooms to open, for a 1.1 per cent new supply growth rate increase. LE’s newly released 2026 New Hotel Openings Forecast for Canada anticipates 52 new hotels/5,812 rooms will open, for a 1.6 per cent new supply growth rate increase.