GTA new home market was flat in October

TORONTO — After three months of declines over the summer months, the GTA new home market was flat in October, maintaining gains from September, the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) reported recently.

There were 1,872 new home sales in October, which was down seven per cent from October 2022 and 50 per cent below the 10-year average, according to Altus Group, BILD’s official source for new home market intelligence.

Altus Group also found:

• Condominium apartments, including units in low, medium and highrise buildings, stacked townhouses and loft units, accounted for 1,304 units sold in October, down 20 per cent from October 2022 and 49 per cent below the 10-year average.
• There were 568 single-family home sales in October, up 47 per cent from October 2022 and 51 per cent below the 10-year average.
• Total new home remaining inventory increased compared to the previous month, to 21,032 units. It included 17,930 condominium apartment units and 3,102 single-family dwellings.
• This is the first time since 2016 that inventory levels have exceeded the 21,000 units and represents a combined inventory level of eight months, based on average sales for the last 12 months. A balanced market has nine to 12 months of inventory.
• Benchmark prices increased in October for single-family homes and decreased for condominium apartments compared to the previous month.
• The benchmark price for new condominium apartments was $1,023,102, which was down 10.8 per cent over the last 12 months. The benchmark price for new single-family homes was $1,629,245, which was down 10.3 per cent over the last 12 months.

“With sales basically stable from September we are still seeing many new home buyers sitting on the sidelines versus what we would see in a typical October,” said Justin Sherwood, SVP communications and stakeholder relations at BILD, in a statement. “This is entirely driven by the current monetary policy, interest rates and affordability erosion caused by the rising cost of living.  Delays in preconstruction sales means delays in adding housing supply and the impacts of slower sales will be lower future housing starts. The sooner the market gets indications that more moderate interest rates are on the horizon, the sooner we will see more added housing supply.”