GTA new home sales start strong in January as low inventory levels continue: BILD report

According to a recent report by the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), the GTA new home market posted 2,853 total new home sales in January.

The sales are up 18 per cent from January 2021 and 47 per cent above the 10-year average.It was the highest number of new homes sold in January in 19 years, according to Altus Group, BILD’s official source for new home market intelligence.

A record 2,274 new condominium apartment units, including units in low, medium and high-rise buildings, stacked townhouses and loft units, were sold in January. This was 113 per cent above the 10-year average and more than 40 per cent higher than the previous high in 2017.

Sales of new single-family homes, including detached, linked, and semi-detached houses and townhouses (excluding stacked townhouses), with 579 units sold, were down 33 per cent from the 10-year average.

“January provided further evidence that, despite earlier pandemic-related disruptions, the City of Toronto remains an attractive location for new condo apartment investors and end user buyers,” said Edward Jegg, Analytics Team Leader at Altus Analytics, Altus Group. “Strong sales at the large number of recently opened City of Toronto projects boosted overall GTA new condo sales to their highest January ever. New single-family home sales, however, continued to be weak across the GTA, plagued by record low inventory.”

With nine new condominium apartment projects opening in January, condominium apartment remaining inventory increased slightly compared to the previous month, to 8,333 units, but still represented only 2.9 months of inventory based on average sales for the past 12 months. A balanced market would have 9 to 12 months of inventory. Condominium apartment inventories have fallen to within 1,000 units of the recent lows of 2017 and are half the level compared to as recent as the 2011-2016 period, noted Mr.  Jegg.

Remaining inventory for single-family homes reached a record low of 550 units in January, about 10 per cent of the level from 2019, before the start of the pandemic, and far below the more than 15,000 units on average for the 2000-2009 period. Remaining inventory includes units in preconstruction projects, in projects currently under construction, and in completed buildings.

“One needs to look no further than the strong demand and our weakening inventory numbers to know we have a housing supply crisis in the GTA,” said Justin Sherwood, BILD’s Senior VP of Communications and Stakeholder Relations. “That is why BILD has welcomed the recent report from Ontario’s Housing Affordability Task Force and why we support its 55 recommendations to address the housing supply and affordability challenge in Ontario and the GTA.”

Benchmark pricing eased somewhat in January for both condominium apartments and single-family homes. The benchmark price for new condominium apartments was $1,150,685, which was up 12.7 per cent over the last 12 months, and the benchmark price for new single-family homes was $1,771,162, which was up 30 per cent over the last 12 months.