GTA market activity reaches unprecedented heights

The Greater Toronto Area saw “extremely robust levels” of new home sales in 2021, reaching its second strongest annual record after 2002, according to Altus Group and the Building Industry and Land Development Association.

A total of 46,651 new homes were sold in the GTA last year, according to Altus and BILD. This level was 27% higher than the region’s 10-year average. At 32,919 units sold, condo apartment sales were 40% higher than the 10-year average, and a mere 125 units less than the all-time record seen in 2017.

Of this volume, single-family homes represented 13,732 transactions in 2021, approximately 4% higher than the 10-year average. In December alone, 2,739 new homes were sold in the region, with condos reaching their highest December sales level (2,170 units) in four years.

“New condominium apartment sales were impressive in December, pushing the total for 2021 to just shy of 2017’s record,” said Edward Jegg, analytics team leader at Altus Group. “Single-family new home sales continued to languish in the face of chronic low supply and soaring pricing.”

Read more: Which region has emerged as Canada’s hottest new home market?

As for benchmark prices, condo apartments reached nearly $1.164 million (up 13.5% year over year), while single-family homes stood at roughly $1.83 million (up 38.5%). The region’s active residential listings fell to 8,922 units, the lowest level since January 2000.

“The record low inventory levels and record high benchmark pricing we saw in December illustrate perfectly why housing supply and affordability will rank among the defining issues in this year’s provincial and municipal elections,” said Justin Sherwood, senior vice president of communications and stakeholder relations at BILD. “Insufficient housing supply is driving the GTA’s housing affordability challenge while exacerbating inequality, slowing down economic growth and threatening our collective quality of life.”