The market is seeing movement in prices across all residential asset classes
New home sales in the Greater Toronto Area continue to surpass the region’s long-running averages, according to the Building Industry and Land Development Association.
The latest figures from Altus Group, which BILD uses as its official source of market data, showed that a total of 3,661 homes were sold across the GTA in May. This was a level 5% higher than the 10-year average, BILD said.
“While sales of new condominium apartments were lower in May than the frenzied pace of the previous two months, they were still above the 10-year average for May as demand remains buoyant and activity settles into more sustainable levels,” said Ryan Wyse, manager of analytics and data solutions at Altus Group. “Buyers continue to be attracted to new openings, with about half of the newly released units available for purchase before the last 10 days of May selling within the month.”
Condos accounted for 2,396 new home sales in GTA in May, approximately 10% above the 10-year average. The benchmark price for the asset class grew by 12% year over year to approximately $1.064 million.
New single-family homes saw 1,265 sales, just 3% below the 10-year average. The benchmark price for this property type surged by 24.4% annually to around $1.38 million.
Read more: Which GTA markets have seen the greatest condo price increases?
The total supply of new homes in the market was at 12,555 units in May, which translates to just 3.3 months’ worth of inventory based on the current pace of sales.
“The low inventory levels reported in the May data underline the need for GTA municipalities to address chronic shortages of housing supply,” said Dave Wilkes, president and CEO of BILD. “Municipalities need to speed up approvals of shovel-ready projects, and, as we look ahead to continued population growth in the GTA, they need to evaluate all aspects of the development approvals process to ensure that the new homes the region needs are being built in a timely manner.”
