Over the past 5 years or so, real estate headlines in the Greater Toronto Area have often focused on the rapid appreciation of low-rise housing. High-rise housing simply wasn’t appreciating at the same rate – at least in aggregate terms.

But 2017 has brought a different story. 

If you look at BILD’s “New Homes Monthly Market Report” (data provided by Altus Group as of July 2017), you can see that high-rise pricing is now on a similar trajectory to low-rise pricing.

Here is that graph:

This sharp uptick in pricing is also apparent when you look at the average price per square foot of new high-rise inventory. As of July, it was $764 psf across the GTA. See below.

At the same time, average unit sizes have also jumped up to 871 square feet. So not only are new high-rise homes becoming more expensive on a normalized basis, they are also getting bigger, which further increases prices.

I recognize that we’re only seeing data up to the end of July, but, from the looks of it, 2017 is shaping up to be an extraordinary year for the condo.

Of course, part of the reason this is happening is because remaining inventory for both low-rise and high-rise product is hitting 10-year lows. We’re back to the topic of supply.

If you’re curious how some of these numbers have changed from the month prior (June 2017), check out this post.

The Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) announced its February (2017) numbers today for the Greater Toronto Area. Here are some of the highlights:

- At the end of February, there were 324 detached homes available in developer inventories. Ten years ago, this number was was 12,064 (detached only). 

- If you consider all low-rise homes (detached, semi-detached, and towns) the above numbers are 1,001 (2017) and 17,304 (2007), respectively.

- Average price of a new detached house is now $1,469,449. For all ground-related housing – again, including semis and towns – it’s $1,081,013.

- There were more than twice as many condo apartments sold than low-rise homes in February.

- Condo inventory is also dropping and reached a low of 10,342 units.

- Average price of a new condo increased to $652 per square foot and the average unit size decreased to 802 square feet.

Here’s that information in a chart from Altus Group:

The overall story here continues to be about decreasing inventory and increasing prices. There’s also the ongoing shift from low-rise to higher density housing, which I don’t view as a bad thing.