TORONTO Canadian housing starts unexpectedly rose in September, climbing 8% compared with the previous month, as groundbreaking increased on multi-unit and single-family-detached projects, data from the national housing agency showed on Wednesday.

The seasonally adjusted annualized rate of housing starts rose to 270,466 units from a revised 250,383 units in August, the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) said. Economists had expected starts to fall to 240,000.

(Reporting by Fergal Smith, Editing by Louise Heavens)