The number of new condos that sold in the Toronto area during June came in 94 per cent higher than the same month a year earlier, with 2,588 units finding buyers.FRED LUM/The Globe and Mail
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The number of new condos that sold in the Toronto area during June came in 94 per cent higher than the same month a year earlier, with 2,588 units finding buyers.
And sales of new detached homes were up 84 per cent, to 2,020 houses, according to the latest data from research firm RealNet Canada Inc.
All told, it was the third-highest June in the last decade for new home sales in the city. Condo sales were 19 per cent higher than the ten-year average and detached home sales were 24 per cent higher than average. Total sales of new homes in the Toronto area during the first six months of this year were up 51 per cent from last year, and were 8 per cent higher than the ten-year average.
Prices of new detached homes were up 6.6 per cent in June from a year earlier, while prices for new condos in the city were up 1.5 per cent, according to RealNet. The benchmark price of a new low-rise home in and around the city now stands at $680,529. (The benchmark looks at the average asking price of new homes but removes a portion of the highest and lowest prices from the equation). The corresponding benchmark price of condos now sits at $436,876.
Although the benchmark price or average price of condos is up from a year ago, the average price per square foot has fallen in the last couple of months. It stood at $541 at the end of June, down from $549 at the end of May. That comes as the average size of a condo ticked up to 807 square feet.
According to RealNet there were 21,561 condo units still for sale in the Toronto area in June, including those in buildings that are yet-to-be-built (12,533 units), under construction (7,381 units), or finished (1,647).
Condo sales so far this year are slightly higher than they were in the same period of 2012. Canada's housing market generally slumped from mid-2012 into early 2013, after the government took steps to tighten the mortgage market. Toronto's condo market has been a particular source of concern among policy-makers.