Greater Toronto Area, October 28, 2024 – Greater Toronto Area (GTA) new home sales remained low in September, with slight price reductions and high, stable levels of available inventory, the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) announced today.
There were 591 new home sales in September which was down 69 per cent from September 2023 and 76 per cent below the 10-year average, according to Altus Group*, BILD’s official source for new home market intelligence.
“GTA new home sales had another slow month in September 2024, despite three successive Bank of Canada rate cuts” said Edward Jegg, Research Manager with Altus Group. “We now have a market that is highly primed with elevated inventories, falling prices and a further 50 basis point rate cut. All that is needed is for buyers to jump off the sidelines.”
Condominium apartments, including units in low, medium and high-rise buildings, stacked townhouses and loft units, accounted for 247 units sold in September, down 81 per cent from September 2023 and 85 per cent below the 10-year average.
There were 344 single-family home sales in September, down 41 per cent from September 2023 and 58 per cent below the 10-year average. Single-family homes include detached, linked and semi-detached houses and townhouses (excluding stacked townhouses).
Total new home remaining inventory increased slightly compared to the previous month, to 21,871 units. This includes 17,427 condominium apartment units and 4,444 single-family dwellings. This represents a combined inventory level of 13.8 months, based on average sales for the last 12 months. This remains a high months of inventory level (based on sales), however the actual number of units maintains the trend seen since autumn 2023 of actual inventory levels near or just above the 20,000-unit mark. This is a sign of a stagnated market – buyers not buying and builders not adding new projects. The longer sales remain low, the longer the future negative impact on housing starts in the GTA, which will set the region up for inventory shortages and price appreciation in the future. The groundwork for a future supply crunch is being laid out today.
“There is a ‘cost to build’ crisis in the GTA. With land, labour and material prices being what they are, it is very difficult to build a new home at a cost that the market will readily absorb – and this issue is manifesting itself in the form of low sales and therefore lower housing starts in the GTA,” said Justin Sherwood, SVP Communications & Stakeholder Relations at BILD. “Government fees and taxes comprise 25 per cent of the cost of an average home in the GTA. This is why BILD has been calling on governments to do something about lowering added fees and costs to help address affordability and to ensure that there is adequate supply of new housing available as buyers begin to return to the market as interest rates continue to decline.”
Benchmark prices decreased slightly in September for both single-family homes and for condominium apartments compared to the previous year. The benchmark price for new condominium apartments was $1,025,111, which was down one per cent over the last 12 months. The benchmark price for new single-family homes was $1,565,116, which was down 0.1 per cent over the last 12 months.
With more than 1,000 member companies, BILD is the voice of the home building, residential and non-residential land development and professional renovation industries in the Greater Toronto Area. The building and renovation industry provides 256,000 jobs in the region and $39.3 billion in investment value. BILD is affiliated with the Ontario and Canadian Home Builders’ Associations.
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For additional information or to schedule an interview, contact Janis McCulloch at jmcculloch@bildgta.ca or 416-617-7994.
*Altus Group should be credited as BILD’s official source of new home market intelligence.
