With the Toronto region’s new housing market reporting another “strong” month for sales in May, current inventory levels for new homes across all stages of development are equal to only a few month’s worth of supply.
In its May market report released this week, the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) stated that remaining new home inventory in the Toronto region totaled 12,555 units in May. This amounts to 3.3 months of supply based on the current pace of sales, said the report. By comparison, balanced market conditions would see nine to 12 months of inventory. Remaining inventory includes units in projects that are in pre-construction, construction and completed phases.
“The low inventory levels reported in the May data underline the need for GTA municipalities to address chronic shortages of housing supply,” said Dave Wilkes, President and CEO of BILD, in the report.
“Municipalities need to speed up approvals of shovel-ready projects, and as we look ahead to continued population growth in the GTA, they need to evaluate all aspects of the development approvals process to ensure that the new homes the region needs are being built in a timely manner,” he added.
Both total new home sales and new condominium sales in the Greater Toronto Area hit above the 10-year average in May, BILD reported.
In May, a total of 3,661 new homes were sold between the condominium and single-family categories, a five percent increase over the region’s 10-year average, according to BILD’s official source for new home market intelligence, Altus Group. Toronto reported the highest number of new home sales in May at 1,615 transactions, while Halton reported the lowest at 230 transactions.
New single-family home sales dipped three percent below the 10-year average in May, with 1,265 sales for detached, linked, and semi-detached houses and townhouses reported that month, excluding stacked townhouses. Peel Region reported the highest number of single-family home sales, at 479 properties.
The benchmark price for new single-family homes was down in May, dropping 1.1 percent from the previous month to $1,380,491, which was still up by 24.4 percent over the last 12 months.
Sales for condominium apartments fared slightly better, posting 2,396 new home sales in May for low-, medium- and high-rise buildings, plus stacked townhouses and loft units. This equals a 10 percent increase above the 10-year average. Month-to-month, the benchmark price of a new construction condominium apartment increased to $1,063,973, an eight percent jump compared to the same period last year.
“While sales of new condominium apartments were lower in May than the frenzied pace of the previous two months, they were still above the 10-year average for May as demand remains buoyant and activity settles into more sustainable levels,” said Ryan Wyse, Altus Group’s Manager of Analytics, Data Solutions, in the report.
“Buyers continue to be attracted to new openings, with about half of the newly released units available for purchase before the last 10 days of May selling within the month,” he added.
