The city with the most high-rise building projects in North America may have finally reached its sales peak. Toronto’s condo market is on the downturn after reaching record-high demand in the first quarter of 2012. Condo sales have dropped 34 percent when compared to August 2011.
The Real Property Association of Canada attributes the decline to the slowing economy. It may also be due to tightened mortgage lending rules, says Moneyville.
This drop means growing concern regarding the number of condos that have still gone unsold or have yet to be built. 13,000 condominium units are scheduled for completion in 2012 and up to 28,000 units in 2013.
The average price of a condo in the City of Toronto is $395,000 or about $566 per square foot in an unsold unit.
Urbanation, a condominium market research company, says despite the dropping numbers, they predict 20,000 new units will be sold by the end of 2012.
The GTA housing market has also seen a downturn of 12.5 percent. Despite this number, house prices actually rose by 6.5 percent to an average price of $479,000 in August. This, claims Moneyville, is what will keep the Toronto market from taking a catastropic drop. Single family homes remain in high demand in the GTA.
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Mollie Paige is an intern working at the Toronto Standard. You can follow her on twitter @MolliePB
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