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After a turbulent 2018 for the Greater Toronto Area housing market, a new report released by the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) is showing a slight rebound in sales from January 2019, signifying the potential for more positive growth as the year progresses. According to data provided to BILD by Altus Group, 1,362 new home sales were recorded last month, marking a 14% year-over-year increase from January 2018.
Despite the modest increase in sales, the month's totals for new single-family homes, including detached, linked, and semi-detached houses and townhouses still fell 53% below the 10-year average, with just 420 single-family homes sold. Much closer to the 10-year average were sales of new condominium apartments, with the 942 units sold only sitting 5% below the 10-year average.
“This year is starting off on a positive note,” reads a statement from Patricia Arsenault, Altus Group’s Executive Vice President, Data Solutions. “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.”
Of the 942 condominium apartments sold last month in the GTA, 724 were located within Toronto, with the next largest number of condo sales in Peel Region with 105. Of the 420 single-family homes sold in the GTA last month, only 5 were sold in Toronto, showing the city's continued shift to higher-density housing types. Halton Region was where most of the single-family home sales went down, with the 231 homes sold representing over half of the GTA-wide total.
Benchmark prices seemed to mirror these trends, with the benchmark price of single-family homes dropping 8.1% over the last year, now at $1,130,046. The condo apartment benchmark price increased from last month, now sitting at $803,638, and representing a 12.5% jump in the last year.
A lack of new product introduced to the housing market in January resulted in a decrease in remaining inventory, which now consists of 15,530 units in a mix of 10,364 condo apartment units and 5,166 single-family homes in a range of preconstruction, under-construction and completed developments across the region.
“It looks like the market is starting to return to typical levels after a particularly difficult year,” reads a statement from David Wilkes, BILD President & 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.”
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