# Only 9% of new homes sold last month were low-rise single-family

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2017-07-25

bild, cities, condo, condo-apartment, condo-development, development, greater-toronto-area, gta, high-rise, housing, low-rise-housing, mid-rise, real-estate, toronto, uncategorized, urbanism

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![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/5db3c50e819661414f483aae8120ad26.jpg)

BILD (the Building Industry and Land Development Association) just released its June 2017 data for the Greater Toronto Area’s new housing market. You can read the [full release here](http://www.bildgta.ca/news/newsreleases/New-housing-market-continues-to-climb-with-condo-sales-reaching-record-high). But I would like to point out a couple of things:

> _About_ **_91 percent of the 6,046 new homes sold last month were multi-family condo apartments_** _in high-rise and mid-rise buildings and stacked townhomes, while only nine percent were low-rise single-family homes._
> 
> _The average price of available new condo apartments continued to rise with an increase of more than $22,000 from May. June’s $627,000 average price marked a 34 percent increase from a year ago. The average available unit was 845 square feet with_ **_an average price per square foot of $742_**_. A year ago, the average price per square foot was $587._  

From this, it’s once again clear that Toronto is in the midst of an incredible transformation from a low-rise city to a more vertical city. New supply on the low-rise side of the market is heavily constrained.

I get [the sense](http://torontoist.com/2017/07/houses-expensive-toronto-dont/) sometimes that many people in this city, and others, believe that access to a low-rise detached house should be a right. Go to school. Get a good job. And then buy that house with a backyard. 

The data speaks to a very different reality.

_Photo by_ [_Victoria Heath_](http://unsplash.com/photos/gl_XDNQ7SMo?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) _on_ [_Unsplash_](https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/only-9percent-of-new-homes-sold-last-month-were-low-rise-single-family)*