The average price of new condominium apartments in stacked townhouses and mid- and high-rise buildings in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) reached a record $507,511 in January, says the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD).
The average price for a condominium reached an unprecedented $625 per square foot. New apartment prices have climbed 13 per cent since January 2016, an increase of nearly $60,000. Ten years ago, the average price of a condominium apartment was $322,569.
“Our industry is implementing provincial policy by building more condominium apartments and less ground-oriented housing,” said Bryan Tuckey, BILD president and CEO, in a press release. “A decade ago, condominiums represented just 42 per cent of available inventory, compared to 88 per cent in 2017.”
After years of healthy supply, the number of condominium apartments available for purchase began to fall. In January 2017, there were 11,529 new condominiums in builders’ inventories across the GTA, a 10-year low.
Meanwhile, BILD reports that in January, the average price of new single-family low-rise homes, including detached, semi-detached, row and townhomes, climbed to a new record of $1,028,395, according to Altus Group. Prices of new ground-oriented homes climbed 25 per cent in just one year.
The average price of a new detached home reached an unprecedented $1,316,325 in January. That is compared to 10 years ago, when the average price was $444,368. Meanwhile, the average price of a new GTA townhome was $879,619 in January 2017, compared to $328,989 in January 2007.
At the end of January, there were only 1,524 new ground-oriented homes available for purchase in builders’ inventories, which is a near-record low. Compared to 10 years ago, there were 18,400. The supply of new detached homes declined to 534, the lowest number ever recorded in the GTA. This contrasts greatly from the 12,242 new detached homes available 10 years ago.
Overall, there were 13,053 new homes in builders’ inventories across the GTA in January 2017, compared to 31,461 in January 2007.
“Lack of serviced developable land, excessive red tape and frequent delays in the development approval process have all been large contributors to our housing supply crisis,” added Tuckey.
New condominium apartment sales were the strongest for a January following a record 2016. There were 1,199 homes sold across the GTA in January, with most sales in the City of Toronto. That number is an increase of 11 per cent compared to last year.
“Demand for condominium apartments is coming from a variety of sources,” added Patricia Arsenault, executive vice president of research consulting services at Altus Group. “Among them: end users who prefer the locations and amenities offered by condominium apartments; families who might have opted for a single-family home, but have been shut out of that segment due to lack of available product, and investors who are the key providers of new rental supply for the GTA’s growing population.”
Sales of new single-family homes dropped to one of the lowest Januaries in the last 10 years. There were 741 homes sold across the GTA, of which 369 were detached.
