Population growth is a major factor fuelling consumer appetite for Toronto homes
While approximately 100,000 condo units are currently under construction in Toronto, developers are still finding themselves unable to fulfill demand in the region, market players said.
A major factor fuelling consumer appetite for Toronto homes is population growth, which has made it even harder for low-cost housing supply to find headway in the market, according to Tridel president and CEO Jim Ritchie.
“It’s really challenging in terms of affordability,” Ritchie told BNN Bloomberg.
The Canadian population exceeded 39.566 million on January 1 this year, registering more than 1 million new arrivals annually for the first time in Canadian history, data from Statistics Canada showed.
The annual population growth rate also reached its highest level (2.7%) since 1957 (3.3%), with the increase mainly spurred by inbound international migration.
StatCan said that new arrivals accounted for nearly all (95.9%) of the population growth recorded in 2022, with a significant portion settling at metropolitan areas like Toronto.
Fortunately for Toronto, ample opportunities remain in the form of diverse sub-markets with a wide range of needs that can be fulfilled piece by piece, Ritchie said.
“The one thing about our condo market in the (Greater Toronto Area), in my mind, it’s not one marketplace,” Ritchie said. “It’s made up of many sub-markets that have different needs.”
Ritchie singled out Scarborough in east Toronto as a high-traffic community that might see intensified development of condo towers.
“I think Scarborough is another area that we should be looking at, at least in terms of affordability into the marketplace,” Ritchie said, noting that other high-potential locales include Markham, Mississauga, Vaughan, and Oakville.
