29 October 2019

The results from Altus Group were released after the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation predicted a market activity recovery for 2021 in its annual outlook.

David Wilkes, BILD’s CEO, says a 283% annual gain in single-family home sales is another sign of buyers coming back after a slowdown caused by the new mortgage rules and a foreign buyers’ tax.

“The on-going low interest rate environment encourages such purchases,” – Wilkes noted. “We’ve seen certain moderation in prices growth which also made it more affordable.”

Although the gap between condo and single-family home prices is reducing, the increasing GTA population means that housing demand will keep exceeding the supply and lead to higher prices.

“The degree of improvement in new homes sales and new project openings has been restrained in 2019, and there are no signs of market overheating,” – noted Patricia Arsenault, Altus Group’s executive vice president.

Halton Region accounted for more than a third of single-family home sales (352 out of 954), while Toronto is still leading the way in the condo segment with 1,294 out of 2,107 units sold here, says The Star.