New home sales in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) experienced a rebound in April, starting a "return to more traditional levels," says the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD).
New data from BILD and Altus Group released on Wednesday revealed 2,391 new home sales in April, which, although down 35% from the same time last year and 30% below the 10-year average, is nearly double the 1,277 sales seen in March.
“GTA homebuyers returned to the market driving new home sales higher,” said Edward Jegg, Research Manager with Altus Group. “The fundamentals had pointed to a rebound in April and that strength is expected to continue through the spring market.”
The majority of April's new home sales came in the form of condo apartments, accounting for 1,327 of the sold units. Interestingly, this is down 57% from April 2022 and is 39% below the 10-year average.
Single-family home sales, on the other hand, saw an 81% jump compared to the same time last year, totalling 1,064, which is just 16% below the 10-year average.
Limited inventory has been an ongoing issue in the GTA, but in April it improved ever so slightly with the new home remaining inventory -- which notably includes pre-construction and under-construction projects -- rising 3.1% from March, bringing it to a grand total of 14,928 units. Of these, 13,588 are condo apartments while just 1,340 are single-family units, representing 12 months and four months of inventory, respectively.
"Although inventory numbers have moved closer to balanced market requirements of 9-12 months of inventory, it is too early to suggest required inventory levels have resulted in a sustained balanced market," the BILD report reads.
Some more good news for buyers: the benchmark price for new single-family homes in April decreased slightly from March, falling 1.8% to $1,768,456. This is also a 1.1% decline compared to April 2022. Condo apartments similarly saw a decrease in benchmark price, slipping 1.3% to $1,102,904, which also marks a 7.3% annual decline.
“In the short term, the impact of sales on new home inventory will be balanced by new project openings with numerous projects in the pipeline,” said BILD President & CEO Dave Wilkes. “However, longer term we cannot take our eye off what needs to be the singular focus of every municipality in the GTA -- consistently adding sufficient housing supply. Failure to do so will simply result in inflationary pressures to the cost of new homes returning.”
