According to the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB), the average selling price for condominium apartments in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) has increased by 5.4 per cent year-over-year to $561,338.
The highest average selling price for a condominium apartment was in the City of Toronto, at $603,480, an increase of 6.5 per cent compared to Q2-2017.
“Condominium apartments have outperformed other housing types over the past year, in terms of price growth,” said Garry Bhaura, TREB president, in a press release. “It has been a seller’s market in many neighbourhoods for this home type, which is why we have continued to report average price growth more than twice the rate of inflation.”
There were a total of 6,837 condominium apartment sales through TREB’s MLS System in Q2-2018, a 16.5 per cent decline compared to the 8,188 sales reported in Q2-2017. However, the number of new condominium apartment listings fell by 15.9 per cent on an annual basis. Since sales and new listings were down by similar annual rates, this suggests that market conditions have remained similar over the past year, which has supported continued price growth.
“First time buyers continue to be a key driver of condominium apartment demand,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s director of market analysis. “The relative affordability of condos versus low-rise home types, especially with the onset of stricter mortgage qualification guidelines and generally higher borrowing costs, has also been a key factor underpinning tight condo market conditions and continued average price growth.”
The current status of the condominium apartment market highlights the TREB’s calls for governments to take steps to work on creating greater housing options, especially in the “missing middle,” which refers to the gap between low-rise low density and high-rise high density housing.
“For many people, condominiums are the only realistic housing option, even if they may prefer a different lifestyle. There is simply not enough supply of housing to meet the need for home types between detached homes and condominium apartments,” added Bhaura. “This could help provide affordable housing options for home buyers and TREB looks forward to raising this issue during the upcoming municipal election campaign in our determination to find ways to get more of this type of housing into the market.”
