Average price of a resale condo unit in the Greater Toronto Area jumps nearly 6%
By Newinhomes on Oct 18, 2019
The Greater Toronto Area’s resale condo market is going strong according to the latest quarterly findings from the Toronto Real Estate Board, but there are some areas where average prices are falling.
In the third quarter of 2019, there were 6,407 condo sales reported through the MLS system, which is an 11.1% year-over-year increase. During the same time, new listings of condo units dropped 1% with 9,538 hitting the market.
“As economic conditions continue to be favourable for job growth in the Greater Toronto Area, people have continued to come to the city for work,” says TREB President Michael Collins. “Home ownership is important to many Canadians, and, as a relatively affordable housing option, condos in the GTA offer prospective buyers the chance to achieve their dreams of owning property.”
With sales growth outpacing new listings, the GTA’s resale condo market continued to tighten. TREB also points out that the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reported a drop in year-to-date condo completions, so that means there were likely fewer investor units coming to market over the last few months.
“Condominium apartments are obviously a popular choice amongst first-time homebuyers,” says Jason Mercer, TREB’s Chief Market Analyst. “Moreover, it is also important to remember that condominium apartments owned by investors represent a huge component of the GTA rental stock and certainly account for most additions to the rental stock, on net, over the past decade. With this in mind, a well-supplied condo segment will be important moving forward to ensure that we can keep up with population growth driven by a strong and diverse regional economy.”
The tightening conditions have fuelled condo price growth. The overall average price of a condo in the GTA in Q3-2019 was $584,564, which is 5.8% higher than the same period a year ago. In Toronto, which accounted for 70% of condo sales (4,472), the average price of a condo unit went up 5.6% to $682,074. Toronto is the only area of the GTA with average condo prices exceeding $600,000.
The most affordable area of the GTA when it comes to the resale condo market is Durham Region, where there were 147 sales in Q3-2019 with an average price of $380,256, which is actually slightly lower than Q3-2018’s average price of $395,603. The average price of a resale condo unit also fell in Halton, down from $529,436 in 2018 to $500,941 in 2019.
Home sales tend to slow down around the holidays, so we only have a couple more good months of activity in the GTA. We’re eager to see how 2019 wraps up!
