Tarion adds new protection for condo buyers

Condo buyers in Ontario will get greater protection following the announcement of new requirements by the province’s home warranty provider.

Tarion says the new measures will help educate and inform prospective homebuyers and will include the addition of new search tools on Tarion’s Ontario Builder Directory and a new detailed information sheet highlighting the potential risks of purchasing certain types of pre-construction condominiums.

“The purchase of a new home is often the most important one that many Ontarians will make,” said Tarion’s President and CEO Howard Bogach. “At Tarion, we’re doing our part to ensure that these purchases are guided by a thorough understanding of the risks, builder history, and status of a given project. The initiatives that we’re announcing today will contribute to a better informed purchasing process.”

The new mandatory disclosures will be effective from January 1, 2020, and will ensure that potential buyers are aware of several key risk factors including:

• pre-construction condominiums come with the risk that they may never be completed;
• early termination conditions that would allow a developer to cancel a project; 
• information about the status of the development (e.g., formal zoning approval, relevant approval authority and date of commencement of construction);
• information about any restrictions on the developer’s land title that may prevent the project from going forward; 
• a purchaser has an initial 10 days under the Condominium Act, 1998 to cancel a sales agreement; and
• the expected date when a purchaser can take occupancy.

The new information sheet will be required for all agreements of purchase and sale for units where the purchase agreement for the project or phase of the project is signed after January 1, 2020.

However, leasehold, common element and vacant land condominiums are excluded from the requirement.

Tarion adds new protection for condo buyers

Condo buyers in Ontario will get greater protection following the announcement of new requirements by the province’s home warranty provider.

Tarion says the new measures will help educate and inform prospective homebuyers and will include the addition of new search tools on Tarion’s Ontario Builder Directory and a new detailed information sheet highlighting the potential risks of purchasing certain types of pre-construction condominiums.

“The purchase of a new home is often the most important one that many Ontarians will make,” said Tarion’s President and CEO Howard Bogach. “At Tarion, we’re doing our part to ensure that these purchases are guided by a thorough understanding of the risks, builder history, and status of a given project. The initiatives that we’re announcing today will contribute to a better informed purchasing process.”

The new mandatory disclosures will be effective from January 1, 2020, and will ensure that potential buyers are aware of several key risk factors including:

• pre-construction condominiums come with the risk that they may never be completed;
• early termination conditions that would allow a developer to cancel a project; 
• information about the status of the development (e.g., formal zoning approval, relevant approval authority and date of commencement of construction);
• information about any restrictions on the developer’s land title that may prevent the project from going forward; 
• a purchaser has an initial 10 days under the Condominium Act, 1998 to cancel a sales agreement; and
• the expected date when a purchaser can take occupancy.

The new information sheet will be required for all agreements of purchase and sale for units where the purchase agreement for the project or phase of the project is signed after January 1, 2020.

However, leasehold, common element and vacant land condominiums are excluded from the requirement.

No signs of overheating in the GTA's new home market

The beginning of fall typically marks the start of a busy season for the new home market in the Greater Toronto Area, and 2019 was no different. 

According to the Building Industry and Land Development Association’s monthly new home market report, there were 3,061 new home sales across the GTA in September 2019, which is 73% higher than the same month a year ago. Altus Group, BILD’s trusted source for new home market intelligence, says this is 6% above the 10-year average. 

New condo sales increased 39% with 2,107 sales in September, which is 12% above the 10-year average, while new single-family home sales went up a whopping 283% year-over-year with 954 sales. While there were many single-family home sales, the total for the month was still 5% below the 10-year average, which actually isn’t that low considering August 2019 single-family sales were 39% below the 10-year average.  

“September provided additional evidence that the new home market in the GTA is recovering nicely from last year’s slump,” says Patricia Arsenault, Altus Group’s Executive Vice President, Data Solutions. “The degree of improvement in both new home sales and new project openings this year has been contained, however, and there are no signs of overheating in the market.”

August is usually slow because builders are planning openings for September and October. There were many new launches in September, bringing the new home inventory in the GTA up to 18,745 units. It’s good to see inventory increasing along with sales because the GTA is in need of more supply as more and more families choose to move to the region. 

“While new home sales and inventory have been increasing, the GTA continues to experience a significant housing supply crunch,” says David Wilkes, BILD President & CEO. “We must continue to focus on the supply side of the housing equation to address this generational challenge for the long term.”

The average price of a new single-family home in the GTA in September 2019 was $1,081,175, which is 3.4% lower than a year ago. Though the average price fell slightly, most families in the GTA still can’t afford a new home priced higher than $1 million. 

As the average price of a new single-family home continues to drop slowly, the average price of a new condo in the GTA has jumped once again, this time by 6.5%, hitting $841,159. If the price gap between single-family homes and condos continues to decrease, we may see some buyers deciding to save slightly longer in order to buy a single-family home instead of a condo.

GTA condo apartment sales up 3.2% in the second quarter

The market for condo apartments remained strong in the Greater Toronto Area in the second quarter.

Greater Toronto Realtors reported 7,038 sales of condo apartments through the Toronto Real Estate Board’s MLS in the three months, up 3.2% compared to a year earlier.

New listings for the sector were down 3.5% year-over-year to 11,110; and the average price gained 5.1% to $589,887, although in the City of Toronto (70% of transactions) the gain was  5.9% to $639,316.

“As has generally been the case in the region since the implementation of the Ontario Government’s Fair Housing Plan in 2017, the condo market segment has remained tight in comparison to other major housing types. However, from a price point perspective, condo apartments continue to offer prospective buyers a relatively affordable housing option when looking across the GTA,” said TREB president Michael Collins.

Rental market also tight

In the rental market, average rents for one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments increased above the rate of inflation on a year-over-year basis in Q2 2019 as the market remained tight.

“However, we have seen an acceleration in the number of units listed for rent, which has provided renters with more choice in the market place and has coincided with a slower pace of average rent growth over the past year,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Chief Market Analyst.

TREB Releases July Market Figures

Toronto Real Estate Board President Michael Collins announced that Greater Toronto Area REALTORS® reported 8,595 sales through TREB’s MLS® System in July 2019. This result was up by 24.3 per cent compared to July 2018. On a month-over-month basis, sales were up by 5.1 per cent, after preliminary seasonal adjustment.

New listings entered into TREB’s MLS® System in July 2019 were up compared to July 2018, but by a much lesser annual rate than sales, at 3.7 per cent. With annual growth in sales far outstripping annual growth in new listings, market conditions clearly tightened compared to last year.  Active listings at the end of July were down by 9.1 per cent year-over-year, further reflecting tightening market conditions.

“While the OSFI mortgage stress test has clearly had an impact on the number of home sales over the last year-and-a-half, for most GTA residents the goal of home ownership has not diminished.  In fact, we’re seeing growing pent-up demand for ownership housing, especially as the number of GTA households continues to increase by 40,000 to 50,000 each year due to strong population growth.  As more and more households come to terms with the stress test and move back into the market in the coming months and years, they could suffer from a chronically under-supplied marketplace and an acceleration of home price growth to unsustainable levels. Fortunately, policy makers have acknowledged the housing supply issue and are working toward solutions,” said TREB CEO John DiMichele.

“On the housing supply issue, it has certainly been encouraging to see both the City of Toronto and the Ontario Government working on solutions to bring more supply on-line.  Based on Mayor John Tory’s motion, Toronto City Council gave City staff a strong mandate to report back on how to develop a greater diversity of housing options in traditional single-family neighbourhoods, including timelines.  Similarly, we’ve seen the Provincial Government launch consultations to spur on, and speed up, the development of different forms of housing in conjunction with their ‘More Homes, More Choice’Plan. TREB looks forward to working with the City and the Province to turn their initiatives into reality,” said TREB President Michael Collins.

As market conditions continued to tighten in July, the average selling price increased by 3.2 per cent on a year-over-year basis to $806,755.  The MLS® Home Price Index Composite benchmark was up by 4.4 per cent.  Higher density home types continued to drive price growth, whereas detached home prices remained down in many communities throughout the GTA.

“Broadly speaking, increased competition between buyers for available properties has resulted in relatively strong price growth above the rate of inflation for semi-detached houses, townhouses and condominium apartments.  However, the single-detached market segment, which has arguably been impacted most by the OSFI stress test, has experienced a slower pace of price growth, with average detached prices remaining lower than last year’s levels in some parts of the GTA,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Chief Market Analyst.

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New GTA home sales jumped 94% in May compared to a year earlier

There was strong activity in the Greater Toronto Area’s new homes market in May.

Figures from the Altus Group, the official data source of the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) show 4,794 new homes were sold in the month, up 94% from a year earlier and 27% above the 10-year average.

“It was the highest number of total new home sales for May since 2002,” said Patricia Arsenault, Altus Group’s Executive Vice President, Data Solutions. “New condo apartment sales were brisk among the near-record number of units launched in April. At the same time, new single-family home sales broke the 1,000-unit threshold for the first time in two years.”

There was a seventh month of year-over-year increases for new single-family homes, including detached, linked, and semi-detached houses and townhouses, with 1,004 sales, up 211% from last May but still 32% below the ten-year average.

Sales of new condominium apartments in low, medium, and high-rise buildings, stacked townhouses and loft units, with 3,790 units sold, were up 76% from May 2018 and 64% above the ten-year average.

“The sales numbers of the last few months show that the underlying demand for new homes, both condo apartments and single-family homes, was there all along,” said David Wilkes, BILD President & CEO. “Our challenge as a region is to continue to develop innovative policy solutions that will allow us to build enough housing supply to meet that demand.”

Price gains for apartments

The benchmark price of new condominium apartments increased slightly from last month, to $779,687, up 2.8% over the last 12 months, while the benchmark price of new single-family homes decreased slightly from last month, to $1,109,501, down 3% over the last 12 months.

GTA REALTORS® Release June 2019 Stats

The new President of the Toronto Real Estate Board, Michael Collins, announced that Greater Toronto Area REALTORS® reported 8,860 sales through TREB’s MLS® System in June 2019, representing a 10.4 per cent increase compared to June 2018. Over the same time period, total new listings remained at a similar level for the month of June and active listings at month-end were down by 5.7 per cent.

Sales and new listings statistics for the first half of 2019 compared to the same period in 2018 painted a similar story to that of June. Sales were up by 8.5 per cent, while new listings were up by less than one per cent. This shows that sales accounted for a greater share of listings compared to last year, which means that competition between buyers increased, resulting in renewed price growth in many segments of the market.

“As I start my term as President of the Toronto Real Estate Board, I am proud to say that the Greater Toronto Area continues to grow, in terms of employment, population and overall diversity. As people are attracted to our region from all around the world, they obviously need a place to live. Over the next year, as demand for ownership and rental housing continues to grow, my hope is that we will see more movement from policy makers on two fronts: alleviating the constrained supply of housing and providing more flexibility around demand-side policies, including the OSFI two percentage point mortgage stress test and allowable amortization periods on insured mortgages,” said Mr. Collins.

The overall average selling price in June 2019 was $832,703 – up by three per cent compared to the average of $808,066 in June 2018. Price growth was driven by the higher density market segments, including semi-detached houses, townhouses and condominium apartments. The MLS® Home Price Index Composite Benchmark was up by a similar annual rate of 3.6 per cent. For the first half of 2019, the average selling price was $810,661, representing an increase of 2.4 per cent compared to the first half of 2018.

“Buyers started moving off the sidelines in the spring, as evidenced by strong year-over-year price growth throughout the second quarter. However, because we saw virtually no change in the number of new listings, market conditions tightened and price growth picked up, especially for more higher density home types, which, on average, are less-expensive than traditional detached houses and therefore provide more affordable housing options under the new OSFI stress test regime,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Chief Market Analyst.

“While some home buyers may have adjusted to the OSFI stress test by looking to more affordable housing options, this could present an issue over the longer term because we aren’t adding a meaningful amount of new mid-density housing supply to bridge the gap between condominium apartments and detached houses. Finding ways to add more mid-density housing types to existing neighbourhoods and new developments needs to be a key component of municipal, provincial and federal housing plans and policies moving forward,” said TREB CEO John DiMichele.

Toronto's apartment market remains tight, prices climbing

The condo apartment market in the Greater Toronto Area remains tight with prices facing upward pressure.

The Toronto Real Estate Board says that GTA Realtors reported 4,731 condo sales through the MLS in the first quarter of 2019, down 6.1% compared to the same period of 2018.

Listings saw a 2.4% rise year-over-year, adding 8,222 to inventory.

“While we experienced a slightly better-supplied condo market in the first quarter of 2019, the market segment remained tight enough to retain the highest year-over-year rate of price growth compared to other major home types,” said TREB president Garry Bhaura. “Condos continue to provide prospective buyers with a relatively affordable housing option in the GTA, especially given the impact of the OSFI-mandated mortgage stress test.”

The average price of a condominium apartment increased by 4.5% from $533,520 in Q1 2018 to $557,377 in Q1 2019.

Year-over-year price growth in the City of Toronto, which accounted for 69 per cent of transactions, was slightly higher at 5.4% resulting in an average price of $603,243.

The slight increase in condo apartment listings could be reversed in Q2 with CMHC stats showing a rise in new condo completions at the end of 2018 but a fall in Q1 2019.

Sales could therefore be lower in Q2 and the tight rental apartments market will see further rent hikes.

“The condominium apartment rental market remained very tight through the first three months of 2019. Average one-bedroom and two-bedroom rents were up well-above the rate of inflation on a year-over-year basis in the first quarter. However, the condo rental market also benefitted from an increase in the number of units listed, resulting in more choice for prospective renters. With this said, we would need to see a number of quarters with listings growth outstripping rental transaction growth in order for the market to become more balanced,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Chief Market Analyst.

GTA REALTORS® Release April 2019 Stats

Toronto Real Estate Board President Garry Bhaura announced that Greater Toronto Area REALTORS® reported a substantial year-over-year increase in home sales in April 2019. The number of residential transactions jumped by 16.8 per cent to 9,042 compared to 7,744 in April 2018. On a preliminary seasonally adjusted basis, sales were up 11.3 per cent compared to March 2019.

New listings were also up year-over-year by eight per cent. However, the annual growth rate for new listings was much lower than that reported for sales. This suggests that market conditions continued to tighten which points toward an acceleration in price growth.

“The strong year-over-year growth in sales is obviously a good news story and likely represents some catch-up from a slow start to the year. TREB’s sales outlook for 2019 anticipates an increase relative to 2018. It should be noted, however, that growth in new listings is not keeping pace with sales. This points to the ongoing housing supply issue in the GTA. In this regard TREB welcomes the provincial government’s Housing Supply Action Plan announced last week to reduce red tape and improve the mix of housing types. TREB provided input on the Plan through submissions and participation on working groups,” said Mr. Bhaura.

The year-over-year rate of price growth generally edged up in April relative to the first three months of the year. The MLS® HPI Composite benchmark was up by 3.2 per cent – the highest rate of growth in more than a year. The average selling price was up by 1.9 per cent to $820,148, representing the strongest annual rate of growth so far in 2019. On a preliminary seasonally adjusted basis, the average selling price was also up by 1.1 per cent compared to March 2019.

Price growth continued to be driven by the condominium apartment segment and higher-density low-rise segments. The average price for detached houses dipped year-over-year, specifically in regions surrounding the City of Toronto. The detached market segment, with the highest price point on average, has arguably been hardest hit by measures such as the OSFI stress test.

“While sales were up year-over-year in April, it is important to note that they remain well-below April levels for much of the past decade. Many potential home buyers arguably remain on the sidelines as they reassess their options in light of the OSFI-mandated two percentage point stress test on mortgages. Longer term borrowing costs have trended lower this year and the outlook for short-term rates, for which the Bank of Canada holds the lever, is flat to down this year. Unfortunately, against this backdrop, we have seen no movement toward flexibility in the OSFI stress test,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Chief Market Analyst.

Tight market conditions in the condominium apartment rental market remain in place. Year-to-date (January 2019 through April 2019) condominium rental transactions for one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments were up by 10.2 per cent and 9.7 per cent respectively compared to the same period in 2018. Average year-to-date rents for one- bedroom apartments were up by 7.3 per cent on an annual basis to $2,150. Over the same period, two-bedroom apartment rents were up by 4.1 per cent to $2,815.

“The supply of ownership and rental housing is of paramount importance to the GTA, from the perspective of affordability and economic competitiveness of the region, insofar as talented people are more likely to move to the region if they can easily find housing that meets their needs within their budgets. With this in mind, it is also important to think about housing supply through the lens of public transportation. TREB has been highlighting the important links between housing and transportation for a number of years, including through research conducted for TREB by CANCEA and the Pembina Institute dealing with transportation infrastructure’s impact on affordability and transit supportive development respectively. TREB will continue research in these areas moving forward,” said TREB CEO, John DiMichele.

GTA sees new home sales begin on a good note this year

Amid a marked slowdown in nationwide activity recently, the Greater Toronto Area has actually experienced a considerable year-over-year increase in new home sales, according to the Building Industry and Land Development Association.

Citing data from Altus Group, BILD announced recently that GTA new home sales volume increased by 14% annually in January, reaching 1,362 transactions.

A deviation from this trend was the single-family segment, which saw its sales settle at levels 53% lower than the 10-year average for this asset class. New condo apartments comprised a notable portion of last month’s activity, with sales being only 5% lower than the 10-year average.

Despite the road bumps, BILD president and CEO David Wilkes deemed the January numbers as a welcome change.

“It looks like the market is starting to return to typical levels after a particularly difficult year,” Wilkes said. “With the spring budget coming up, we are calling on the federal government to take steps to make it easier for first-time home buyers to get into the housing market.”

“The improvement in new home sales over last January is consistent with our outlook for somewhat higher annual sales in the GTA this year, following the drop in 2018.” Altus Group executive vice president of data solutions Patricia Arsenault added.

Healthy sales made their mark in the region’s remaining inventory, which includes preconstruction projects, units currently under construction, and completed buildings. Supply went down to 15,530 units comprised of 10,364 condo apartment units and 5,166 single-family homes.

As for price levels, single-family homes saw their benchmark value shrink by 8.1% year-over-year in January, down to $1,130,046. On the other hand, the average price of a GTA condo apartment unit grew by 12.5% during the same period, up to $803,638.

GTA REALTORS® Release February 2019 Stats

Toronto Real Estate Board President Gurcharan (Garry) Bhaura announced that Greater Toronto Area REALTORS® reported 5,025 homes sold through TREB’s MLS® System in February 2019. This sales total was down by 2.4 per cent on a year-over-year basis. Sales were also down compared to January 2019 following preliminary seasonal adjustment.

“The OSFI mandated mortgage stress test has left some buyers on the sidelines who have struggled to qualify for the type of home they want to buy. The stress test should be reviewed and consideration should be given to bringing back 30 year amortizations for federally insured mortgages. There is a federal budget and election on the horizon. It will be interesting to see what policy measures are announced to help with home ownership affordability,” said Mr. Bhaura.

Despite sales being down year-over-year, new listings actually declined by a greater annual rate. This suggests that market conditions became tighter compared to last year. Tighter market conditions continued to support year-over-year average price growth.

Both the MLS® Home Price Index Composite Benchmark and the average selling price were up modestly on a year-over-year basis in February 2019. The MLS® HPI Composite Benchmark was up by 2.4 per cent year-over-year. The average selling price for all home types combined was up by 1.6 per cent over the same period. Price growth was driven by the condominium apartment segment and higher density low-rise home types. On a preliminary seasonally adjusted basis the average selling price was down compared to January 2019.

“Home sales reported through TREB’s MLS® System have a substantial impact on the Canadian economy. A study conducted by Altus for TREB found that, on average, each home sale reported through TREB resulted in $68,000 in spin-off expenditures accruing to the economy. With sales substantially lower than the 2016 record peak over the last two years, we have experienced a hit to the economy in the billions of dollars, in the GTA alone. This hit has also translated into lower government revenues and, if sustained, could impact the employment picture as well,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Director of Market Analysis and Service Channels.

The rental market continued to operate in a high demand, low inventory environment during the first two months of 2019. Strong competition between renters resulted in average rents for one- bedroom and two-bedroom apartments leased through TREB’s MLS® System increasing well- above the rate of inflation on a year-over-year basis for the January-February period. The average one-bedroom rent was up by 8.1 per cent to $2,145. The average two-bedroom rent was up by 7.4 per cent to $2,810.

“With vacancy rates hovering in the one per cent range and average rents increasing in the high single digits, it is clear that signing a lease for a rental unit is not an easy proposition in the GTA. While some rent control provisions have been relaxed by the new provincial government, policy makers need to look at further initiatives to encourage rather than discourage investment in rental apartments. A recent Ipsos survey conducted for TREB found that almost one-quarter of investment property owners are very likely to list their property for sale this year, which is concerning in an already tight rental market,” said TREB CEO John DiMichele.

GTA REALTORS Release January Stats

TREB President Garry Bhaura announced that Greater Toronto Area REALTORS® reported 4,009 home sales through TREB's MLS® in January 2019 – up by 0.6 per cent compared to January 2018. On a preliminary seasonally adjusted basis, sales were up by 3.4 per cent compared to December 2018.

"It is encouraging to see the slight increase in January transactions on a year-over-year basis, even with the inclement weather experienced in the GTA region during the last week of the month. The fact that the number of transactions edged upwards is in line with TREB's forecast for higher sales in calendar year 2019," said Mr. Bhaura.

The MLS® HPI Composite Benchmark price was up by 2.7 per cent compared to January 2018. The condominium apartment market segment continued to lead the way in terms of price growth. The average selling price was up by 1.7 per cent on a year-over-year basis. After preliminary seasonal adjustment, the average selling price edged lower compared to December 2018.

"Market conditions in January, as represented by the relationship between sales and listings, continued to support moderate year-over-year price increases, regardless of the price measure considered. Given housing affordability concerns in the GTA, especially as it relates to mortgage qualification standards, we have seen tighter market conditions and stronger price growth associated with higher density low-rise home types and condominium apartments, which have lower average selling prices compared to single detached homes," said Jason Mercer, TREB's Director of Market Analysis and Service Channels.