Toronto new condo marketPhoto: James Bombales

It was a blazing start for the Toronto new construction homes market in 2020. Strong new home sales data for January published this week by Altus Group and BILD showed that homebuyer confidence hasn’t waned moving into the new year.

The first month of the year saw 2,106 new homes purchased by end-user buyers and investors from homebuilders in the Toronto region. The January total was up 65 percent from the previous year and 14 percent above the 10-year average, making it a solid result by most measures.

New condo unit sales rose 33 percent over January 2019, with 1,100 units scooped up across the Toronto region. This total also beat out the 10-year average for January by 12 percent. New single-family homes in January saw an even higher percentage increase, up 126 percent over the previous year. There were 1,006 detached, linked, and semi-detached homes and townhomes sold, also good enough to beat the 10-year average by 16 percent.

“The momentum that we saw building in the GTA new home market as 2019 progressed has carried over into early 2020,” said Patricia Arsenault, Altus Group’s Executive Vice President, Data Solutions, in a media release accompanying the January data. “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.”

On the pricing side, new condos saw a significant year-over-year increase, while the benchmark price for new single-family homes saw a marginal move in the opposite direction. January’s benchmark price for new condos was $925,209, up more than 15 percent over the last 12 months. New single-family homes saw the benchmark price drop 2.9 percent to $1,907,613.

“The year has started off with a strong demand for new homes,” said David Wilkes, Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) President and CEO. “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.”

According to data available on BuzzBuzzHome, the median price of a new condo in Toronto is currently $913,990, with 53,668 units currently under construction.

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