The latest condo market data from Urbanation is encouraging. As I reported last month, April was a very slow month, which isn’t surprising given that it was the first full month of lockdown. Residential resales across the Greater Toronto Area were down 67% year-over-year.
In May, we have seen resale condominium sales increase by almost 60% compared to April, though they are still down by a wide margin compared to last year. The average sale price also increased by 7.9% compared to April and by 3.4% compared to last year. This puts resale condominium prices in line with what we were seeing in Q4-2019.
The rental condo market (that is, condos being rented out via MLS) also showed signs of stabilizing. Leases increased by 75% compared to April, outpacing the number of new listings (66%). Rental rates remained more or less flat (0.3%) compared to April, but they are down by about 5% compared to their Q3-2019 high.
On the new construction side, we have only really seen a handful of new launches/releases. Units are selling, but it still feels a bit early, at least for me, to really determine where we’re at in terms of pricing and velocity. Nevertheless, I suspect that we will see a significantly stronger fall market come September.