It may have been cold and dreary last month, but the GTA real estate market continued to heat up with single-family home sales up 126% compared to the year prior, while new home sales were up 65%, according to a new report.
The report, which was prepared by the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), revealed there were 2,106 new home sales in January 2020, up 65% y-o-y and 14% above the 10-year average, which is based on numbers from Altus Group, BILD's source for new home market intelligence.
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Of the sales, 1,100 were new condominium apartments, which included a mix of low, medium and high-rise buildings, stacked townhouses, and loft units, up 33% from January 2019 and 12% above the 10-year average.
The sales of single-family homes, including detached, linked, and semi-detached houses and townhouses accounted for 1,006 units sold, up 126% from January 2019 and 16% above the 10-year average.
According to the report, the benchmark price for a condominium apartment in the GTA in January reached $925,209, a 15% increase from 2019, while the benchmark price for new single-family homes was $1,097,613, down 2.9% over the last 12 months.
Patricia Arsenault, Altus Group’s Executive Vice President, Data Solutions says the momentum of building in the GTA new home market last year proceeded over into 2020. “Both end-user buyers and investors are showing more confidence than a year ago, which suggests 2020 will be another solid year for new home sales.”
However, the report also noted that with very few projects launching at the start of the year, the remaining inventory – which includes units in preconstruction projects, in projects currently under construction, and in completed buildings – decreased compared to the previous month, to 16,176 units.
This was comprised of 11,632 condominium apartment units and 4,544 single-family homes.
David Wilkes, BILD president and CEO, says the year started off with a strong demand for new homes. “To ensure that, in the long-term, GTA new home buyers find the range of homes and prices they are seeking, we can’t take our eye off the supply side of the housing equation.”
