There was improvement in sales of newly-built single-family homes in the Greater Toronto Area.
The Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) reported Thursday that total new home sales were up 20% year-over-year in March to 2,314, including 886 single-family homes.
The figures from the Altus Group, BILD’s official data source show that single-family sales were up from the March 2018 low of 295 but were 36% below the 10-year average.
For condos, sales totaled 1,428, down 13% year-over-year and 34% below the 10-year average.
“The desire to own a new single-family home never went away, but many would-be buyers have been taking a wait-and-see approach in the past two years,” said Patricia Arsenault, Altus Group’s Executive Vice President, Data Solutions. “While the affordability of single-family homes in general remains a challenge, the broader range of product at more favourable price points that is starting to emerge has attracted some of these buyers into the market.”
Price moderation
The benchmark price of new single-family homes was $1,116,640, down 7.6% over the last 12 months, while the benchmark price of new condominium apartments was $780,839, up 5.1% over the last 12 months.
“Despite the recent slight moderation in new home prices, affordability is an issue for many people in the GTA, as we have learned from our Building Answers campaign, which encourages residents to ask questions about development,” said David Wilkes, BILD President & CEO. “Affordability will continue to be a challenge until structural remedies are introduced to fix the GTA’s housing supply shortage. It is clear that we all—industry, government and public—need to look for ways to build more housing faster and to mitigate unnecessary delays and costs on new housing.”
The GTA new home market continued to show some encouraging signs in March. https://t.co/UzS2fbP9Nc @AltusData pic.twitter.com/37JH1PtQti
— BILD (@bildgta) April 25, 2019
