1 February 2019

According to the Building Industry and Land Development Association, sales of new homes went down to 25,161 from 2017, marking the lowest annual result since Altus started tracking the figures in Toronto in 2000.

The largest decrease was reported in the sector of single-family homes: the sales fell by 50% to 3,831 from 2017 and were 74% below the 10-year average. Condos were down by 38% to 21,330, but fell only by 4% from the 10-year average.

While the average cost of a new single-family home was down by 6.7% annually to $1,143,505 in December, condo prices showed a 11% increase to $796,815, says BILD.

“Weaker activity in 2018 may be partially caused by a lower demand from investors, who usually account for the largest share of new condominium buyers in the Toronto region”, – Urbanation noted.

“The real estate market is not balanced yet”, – said David Wilkes, president and CEO of BILD, an industry group representing almost 1,500 companies in the Toronto region. “We join other groups in asking the federal government to review the stress test and allow a longer amortization period for first-time buyers. We also look forward to working with our municipal partners on erasing barriers to development, including excessive red tape and outdated bylaws.”