Condo apartments and townhouses, in particular, have become more desirable
A new study has found that Toronto home sales have seen month-over-month growth in early May, which coincided with the return of heated bidding wars in the 416 region.
TREB data collected by online real estate information platform Zoocasa revealed that for the period May 1-15, 2018, sales volume went up by 39% compared to the period April 1-15, 2018. However, the May figures also represented a 22% decline on a year-over-year basis.
Zoocasa found that 197 active house listings in Toronto include the verbiage “accepting offers” and 209 with “register by”. Meanwhile, 127 condo listings in the city indicated that they are “accepting offers”, and 206 have “register by”. Such wording is often interpreted as a clear indicator of bidding wars.
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Breaking sales figures down by property type, Toronto condo apartments saw a 46% month-over-month increase in sales, but down by 18% year-over-year. Meanwhile, condo townhouse sales in the metropolitan area shot up by 46% over April 1-15, 2018, but declined by 21% annually.
Detached homes experienced 25% sales growth compared to April 1-15, 2018, but went down by 32% compared to the same time last year. Semi-detached home sales increased by 35% month-over-month, but down by 20% from May 2017.
Zoocasa noted that these developments have led to more balanced conditions, with the sales-to-new-listings ratio in TREB’s full jurisdiction increasing from 35% in April 2018 to 39% at present, “reflecting continued, though slightly tighter, buyers’ market conditions.”
In the city proper, the ratio went up from 38% to 45%, which represented a move from a buyers’ market to balanced conditions.
