energy reporting

GTA condo apartment sales rose in first quarter

Monday, April 20, 2015

The 4,940 condo apartment sales recorded by Greater Toronto Area REALTORS® in the first quarter of 2015 marked an 11.1-per-cent year-over-year increase, reports the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB). Active listings were largely the same at the end of the first quarter, as sales grew faster than new listings, which were up 6.2 per cent, year over year.

“The condo apartment segment represents a very important component of the overall GTA housing market and particularly the City of Toronto, which accounted for 70 per cent of total condo apartment transactions reported by REALTORS® in the first quarter,” said TREB president Paul Etherington. “Newly completed condo units listed for sale over the past few months have been met with a substantial amount of demand from end users.”

At $363,973, the average selling price for condominium apartments increased 3.6-per-cent, year over year, in the first quarter. Up by a similar amount, the MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) benchmark for apartments ranged from three to four per cent annually. Together, these measures suggest that the mix of units sold during the first quarters of 2014 and 2015 didn’t differ much.

“The condo apartment price growth we experienced in the first quarter is indicative of a healthy marketplace where there is enough demand relative to the supply of listings to see moderate year-over-year price growth,” said Jason Mercer, director of market analysis, TREB. “In other words, we are very much seeing balanced market conditions as it relates to condos.”