GTA new low-rise sales on an upward trend

Intensified activity fulfilled forecasts earlier this year that predicted a rise in home sales in GTA by Q3 2016

The Greater Toronto Area has been playing host to a recent surge in sales volume in the new low-rise segment, despite inventory remaining at rock-bottom levels.
 
The Trimart Research Corporation’s just-released report revealed that 64 per cent of its new low-rise sales forecast has already been achieved even though full numbers from September have yet to come in, The New Home Buyers Network Blog reported.
 
Eastern locales like Oshawa, Pickering, and Whitby have become favoured destinations for would-be low-rise buyers looking for more affordable options just outside Toronto.
 
In Barrie, the Junction Condos development—which offers unit sizes ranging from 701 to 1,244 square feet—saw 103 sales in September alone. With direct connections via highways and transit, Barrie has proven to be a hotspot for those fleeing Toronto’s overheated prices.
 
The intensified activity fulfilled Trimart’s forecast earlier this year, which predicted that home sales in the GTA are expected to pick up significant steam in Q3 2016, taking into account the over 30 new openings and releases planned across the city for the fall season.
 
In its report released around a month and a half ago, the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) arrived at a similar conclusion, adding that the supply of new homes in the GTA has shrunk by 41 per cent over the past decade, from 29,238 in 2006 to 17,213 as of late August 2016.
 
This scarcity has led to the average price of a low-rise home in Toronto increasing by more than $100,000 year-over-year in July, which has reignited fears that the metropolitan market’s affordability situation is spiraling out of control.
 
The BILD report also cautioned that this overheating in the low-rise segment is concurrent with a surge of demand for high-rises. Sales volume of GTA apartments grew by 52 per cent in July compared to the same time last year, while high-rise transactions (including condos) spiked up by 25 per cent in the same period.
 
“There is a stronger demand for larger units. I suspect that is young people again choosing to raise their family in condominiums or possibly empty nesters who are moving into the condominium market and selling their ground-related home,” BILD CEO Brian Tuckey said.