TORONTO — Altus Group recently released its latest Housing Report highlighting annual insights from a variety of housing sectors for major markets across Canada.
The insights were gathered from the range of proprietary data produced by Altus, ranging from Greater Toronto Area (GTA) new condominium apartment sales to Calgary new freehold home sales.
The report found sales of new condominium apartments totalled just over 48,500 units in 2018, down 21 per cent from the almost 62,000 sales in 2017. The GTA accounted for almost half of sales in the markets covered.
New condo apartment sales climbed in Montreal for the third year in a row, to the highest level yet recorded.
The report also found about four per cent of Canadian homeowners aged 50 years or older say they are planning to buy a residential property in the next year. In 2018, roughly two per cent of homeowners aged 50-plus bought a home, compared to four per cent last winter who had plans to buy and about three in ten intended buyers over the age of 50 are thinking about buying additional properties (i.e. vacation properties or rental investment properties).
Other highlights include:
Detached homes account for about seven in ten freehold sales in Calgary, with front drive homes more prevalent than laned;
The total number of residential units in applications submitted last year was down slightly from 2017 for both Vancouver and Toronto, with Toronto following a much sharper drop in 2017; and
Nearly 1,100 rental apartment buildings (with over 40,000 suites) were sold last year, for a total purchase price of over $8.4 billion, 27 per cent higher than in 2017.
More than half of developer respondents in each major region cited project cost escalation as being among their biggest challenges, with trade and labour shortages also cited as a concern for many developers, particularly in Ontario and Quebec, states the release.
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