In January, sales of new homes the Greater Toronto Area experienced a moderate annual increase, reports the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD).

January 2019 saw the sale of 1,362 new homes, up 14 per cent compared to January 2018, according to Altus Group, BILD’s official source for new home market intelligence.

January saw the sale of 420 new single-family homes, including detached, linked and semi-detached houses and townhouses (excluding stacked townhouses), a figure that is 53 per cent below the 10-year average. There were 942 new condominium apartments, including units in low, medium and high-rise buildings, stacked townhouses and loft units sold in January 2019, five per cent below the 10-year average.

“This year is starting off on a positive note,” said Patricia Arsenault, Altus Group’s executive vice president, data solutions, in a press release. “The improvement in new home sales over last January is consistent with our outlook for somewhat higher annual sales in the GTA this year, following the drop in 2018.”

Benchmark prices of new homes continued along recent trends, with the benchmark price of single-family homes declining 8.1 per cent year-over-year to $1,130,046. Meanwhile, the benchmark price of a condominium apartment climbed 12.5 per cent on an annual basis to $803,638.

Since little new product was introduced to the housing market in January, remaining inventory fell slightly on a monthly basis to 15,530 units, comprised of 10,364 condominium apartment units and 5,166 single-family homes. Remaining inventory includes units in preconstruction projects, projects currently under construction and in completed buildings.

“It looks like the market is starting to return to typical levels after a particularly difficult year,” said David Wilkes, BILD’s president and CEO. “With the spring budget coming up, we are calling on the federal government to take steps to make it easier for first-time home buyers to get into the housing market.”