The number of homes for sale the GTA still at a historic low

Jul 5 2021, 8:07 pm

The number of homes for sale in the GTA isn’t budging from its historic low, a new report from the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) says.

A shortage of housing inventory has been a persistent problem in the GTA over the past year, fuelling bidding war competitions and driving up prices to never-before-seen highs. According to BILD, that hasn’t changed at all.

The new report analyzes sale data from May and found 12,555 units of remaining inventory, which comes out to about 3.3 months’ worth of inventory. A balanced market, the report says, should have about nine to 12 months of inventory.

“The low inventory levels reported in the May data underline the need for GTA municipalities to address chronic shortages of housing supply,” said BILD President and CEO Dave Wilkes. “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.”

Despite the low inventory, sales are still going strong. A total of 3,661 homes changed hands during May, which, although lower than previous months, is still 5% above the 10-year-average. The majority of sales were condos, accounting for 2,396 of the transactions.

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“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 of Altus Group, a real estate consulting firm that provided the market data.

“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.”

Laura HanrahanLaura Hanrahan

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