Awful GTA condo numbers no surprise, says industry player

It comes as no surprise to brokers that Greater Toronto Area condo sales plummeted last month, making for the lowest June on record for new sales, according to data from RealNet Canada and the Building Industry and Land Development Association.

It comes as no surprise to brokers that Greater Toronto Area condo sales plummeted last month, making for the lowest June on record for new sales, according to data from RealNet Canada and the Building Industry and Land Development Association.
 
“The Toronto condo market is slowing down,” Sheldon Esbin, the managing general partner of commercial lender Romspen Investment Corp., told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. “The overall economy is good, and we are (doing) a lot of short term lending – but there are not many opportunities in the local condo market.”
 
That winding down is also on the sales front.
 
The sale of new houses, townhomes and semis Canada-wide rose on a year-over-year basis, according to RealNet Canada, BILD’s official source for new home market intelligence. However, new condos only managed 1,251 sales – down 46 per cent from 2,335 June 2012, and far below 3,008 in June of 2011.
 
New home sales in the GTA during June amounted to 2,341, down 30 per cent from 3,364 last June and down 36 per cent from the average over the past decade. 
 
The numbers in the GTA reflect the second-lowest first-half in a decade.
 
“Both the industry and the consumer are currently challenged by a considerable reduction of affordability and choice in the market,” stated BILD chief executive Bryan Tuckey in a press release. “This has severely reduced new home sales, particularly in the low-rise market which is experiencing record-high pricing.”
 
The RealNet New Home Price Index rose 6 per cent from last June, to $638,655. The corresponding high-rise figure fell 0.5 per cent to $430,216.