New single-family home sales bouncing back in the Greater Toronto Area
By Newinhomes on Apr 25, 2019
The Building Industry and Land Development Association released its new home sales figures for March 2019, reporting that new single-family home sales in the Greater Toronto Area increased once again.
In March 2019, there were 2,314 new home sales in the GTA, which is 20% higher than a year ago, but still 36% below the 10-year average, according to Altus Group, BILD’s trusted source for new home market intelligence.
There were 886 new single-family home sales, which is much more than the 295 sales in March 2018, but still 38% below the 10-year average. This is however the fifth month in a row of year-over-year increases for single-family home sales.
There were many more new condo sales, finishing the month with 1,428, but this is actually 13% lower than the same month last year, and 34% below the 10-year average.
“The desire to own a new single-family home never went away, but many would-be buyers have been taking a wait-and-see approach in the past two years,” says Patricia Arsenault, Altus Group’s Executive Vice President, Data Solutions. “While the affordability of single-family homes in general remains a challenge, the broader range of product at more favourable price points that is starting to emerge has attracted some of these buyers into the market.”
The average price of a new single-family home dropped 7.6% year-over-year to $1,116,640. The average price of a new condo increased 5.1% year-over-year to $780,839. New single-family home pricing continues to moderate as more inventory becomes available, but $1 million is still out of reach for many families in the GTA. Condos remain the affordable option, but these prices are also getting out of reach for some buyers.
“Despite the recent slight moderation in new home prices, affordability is an issue for many people in the GTA, as we have learned from our Building Answers campaign, which encourages residents to ask questions about development,” says David Wilkes, BILD President & CEO. “Affordability will continue to be a challenge until structural remedies are introduced to fix the GTA’s housing supply shortage. It is clear that we all—industry, government and public—need to look for ways to build more housing faster and to mitigate unnecessary delays and costs on new housing.”
At the end of March 2019, there were 11,744 new condo units and 5,054 new single-family homes available across the GTA. Compared to the last couple years, this inventory level is looking pretty good, and now that it’s spring, we’ll see many new openings and releases in the coming weeks.
