GTA high-rise home sales on pace for record

Sales of new high-rise homes in the GTA are on pace for a record year, the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) said Thursday.

As of August 31, 17,949 new high-rise homes had been sold in the GTA, a record for this point in the year. While August is typically a slower sales month, sales this year were unprecedented with 1,880 high-rise units sold according to Altus Group, BILD’s official source for new home market intelligence.

August was also a record-setting month for low-rise homes with the lowest available supply and the highest prices ever.

“Our industry is building to government intensification policy and we are building at least as many high-rise homes as low-rise homes,” said BILD president and CEO Bryan Tuckey. “The supply of low-rise homes – especially single-family detached homes – has plummeted in the years since the Growth Plan was introduced, but demand for those types of homes has not diminished. As a result, prices have increased dramatically.”

The average price of a new low-rise home, which includes single-family detached as well as semi-detached homes and townhomes, was a record $931,506 in August. That’s a 16% increase from a year ago and up considerably from the $393,398 average of June 2006, when the Growth Plan was introduced.

As of August 31, there were just 1,379 new low-rise homes available to purchase across the GTA in builders’ inventory, a record low. This is less than a tenth of the 16,560 that were available for purchase on June 30, 2006.

Last month, the average price of new single-family detached homes in the GTA was $1,166,005. In June 2006, a new single detached home was $442,420.

“Demand and prices of high-rise homes are also starting to climb as more people are priced out of the low-rise market,” Tuckey said.

The average price of new high-rise homes in the GTA in August was a record $480,914. This is a 7% increase from August 2015.

High-rise supply was also down in August, with 14,600 units available for purchase in builder inventories. The decline was mainly in homes in the pre-construction stage due to limited new projects introduced in August, typically a slow month for new launches.

Also read: Canadian home sales drop for third straight month

Staff

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