The housing and condo market in GTA was going almost at full throttle until the threat of COVID-19 became real and the social distancing measures were announced by the province and the cities. Then all of sudden the home sales started to decline. The release of new condo projects (those which were about to be released) were postponed indefinitely by the builder.
After a month of drastically declining home and condo sales due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the time may now be ripe (or in a fortnight) for buyers looking to get into Toronto’s real estate market. The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board says home sales were down 69 percent in the first 17 days of April compared with a year ago as the COVID-19 outbreak put a chill on market activity. According to a report released by Toronto Regional Real Estate Board, the year over year average selling price of all homes types in Toronto fell by 3.7% and the price of detached homes came down almost 9%. At the same time, semi-detached and townhomes saw only a marginal decline and the price of condo apartments came down by 2.9%.
This decline is much to do with the fact that bidding wars are no longer a reality — meaning that first-time homebuyers who had issues getting into a hot market prior to COVID-19 are now pushing ahead. The buyers (in most cases) are able to add conditions-financing and inspection-which were very rare in the seller’s market.
Although there are huge discounts available at present as most of the sellers do not want to sell less than what their neighbours got a month or so ago. There are certainly more opportunities for buyers to negotiate more and think twice before sealing the deal.
The possibility of the prices to come down further depends on the isolation measures and the timing of the fully open economy. Semi-detached and townhouse prices are now just 3-4% higher than last year. Condo unit prices are holding at 3% higher than the same time last year. Within the last four weeks, we are still up in price versus a year ago but we could see further depreciation and a flattening over the coming weeks depending on the number of factors associated with COVID-19 and the Government decisions.
In a nutshell after studying all the market tends it can be said that the buyers market is already here in the GTA. Although it will be very hard to predict how long it will last. If you're in the market to buy a house, it is the time to buy with ease as the prices in GTA will rebound once the threat of Covid-19 subsides as there is a huge housing demand in GTA which is going to stay.
Balwant Bhangu | Pre-construction & New Homes Specialist
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