Toronto's condo market sees notable slowdown in January

Toronto’s condominium market has seen both its sales volume and average purchase price fall abruptly in January, according to a Better Dwelling study of data from the Toronto Real Estate Board.

The analysis found that the city’s condo sales have fallen to the levels it has last seen in 4 years, declining by 2.4% year-over-year to reach 1,238 transactions last month. Prior to this, the slowest January was back in 2015.

January’s results reflected the trend found by a recent analysis conducted by Altus Group. For all of 2018, a little over 25,000 new home sales occurred in the Greater Toronto Area, representing the lowest overall activity in 18 years.

This accompanied a larger inventory of new condos, which went up by 12.59% annually (up to 2,521 new listings). The City of Toronto accounted for much of the number with its 1,716 new listings, up by 13.41% from last year.

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Overall supply as of January was at 2,657 active listings, representing 2.54% growth from last year. The City of Toronto contributed 1,738 for a 5.46% increase during the same time frame. This was the highest inventory level for January since 2016.

Toronto’s annual housing price growth of 8.04% was around 59% lower than the gains seen in January 2018, with the median sale price of a condo going up by 7.77% year-over-year (up to $485,000). The City of Toronto’s average condo price was at $529,900, up 8.14% from last year.