TORONTO,
November 5, 2019 - Toronto Real Estate Board President Michael
Collins
announced that Greater
Toronto Area REALTORS® reported 8,491 residential sales
through TREB’s MLS®
System in October 2019. This result represented a 14 per cent
increase compared to
7,448 sales reported in October 2018. GTA-wide, sales were up on a
year-over-year basis for all major home types. “A strong regional
economy obviously fuels population growth. All of these new households need a
place to live and many have the goal of purchasing a home. The
problem is that the
supply of available listings is actually dropping, resulting in tighter
market conditions and
accelerating price growth,” said Mr. Collins.
“During the recent
federal election, some parties committed to more flexibility on the mortgage lending
front, including the reintroduction of a 30-year amortization period for insured mortgages and
more flexibility in the application of the OSFI mortgage stress test. These and
other housing-related policy options should be brought forth in the new
minority parliament,” continued Mr. Collins. The trend of annual growth in
sales versus annual decline in new listings continued in October 2019, with new
listings down by 9.6 per cent compared to October 2018. The resulting tighter
market conditions compared to a year ago resulted in positive annual rates of
price growth across all major market segments, from a GTA-wide perspective. “All levels of
government affecting the GTA plus many international organizations have recognized that we
continue to face a supply issue in our region for all types of housing.
TREB looks forward to
continuing its work with policy makers at all levels to bring more
supply online, which
will help ensure a sustainable pace of price and rent growth over the longer
term,” said TREB CEO John Di Michele.
The MLS® Home Price
Index Composite Benchmark was up by 5.8 per cent on a year over- year basis in
October 2019 – the strongest annual rate of growth since December 2017. The
average selling price for all home types combined was up by 5.5 per cent to
$852,142, compared to $807,538 in October 2018.
“As market conditions
in the GTA have steadily tightened throughout 2019, we have seen an
acceleration in the annual rate of price growth. While the current pace of
price growth remains moderate, we will likely see stronger price growth moving
forward if sales growth continues to outpace listings growth, leading to more
competition between home buyers,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Chief Market
Analyst.
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