Altus Group just released its January (2018) sales figures for the new home market in the Greater Toronto Area.

– 1,251 new homes sold last month. 886 of these (or 70.8%) were condominium apartments (everything from stacked townhouses to high-rises).

– This is down from 2,429 homes in 2017 and 2,118 homes in 2016.

– Almost half of the new home sales (609 homes) came from Toronto alone. And almost all of these (607 homes) were condominium apartments. Only 2 new single-family homes sold in the city last month.

– Benchmark price for single-family homes was $1,229,454, which is a 19.6% increase from January 2017.

– Benchmark price for condominium apartments was $714,430, which is a 40.8% increase from January 2017.

That last increase really stands out. I did a double take.

But as we’ve talked about before, low supply and high prices seem to be pushing more buyers toward condos – and larger ones at that.

Recently we’ve been seeing an increase in both average unit sizes and prices per square foot.

According to Altus, sales of new single-family homes in the GTA last month were the lowest for a January since before 2000.