33 yorkville avenue . Does the average house price break C $1 million? The Toronto Real Estate Bureau released its real estate year-end report for 2020 and market outlook for 2021 on Monday.
The report shows that after unprecedented developments last year, the housing market in the Greater Toronto area (GTA) will continue to see strong and record growth in 2021, with overall average housing prices, including all types of housing, breaking the C $1 million mark for the first time.
Last year, the Canadian real estate market, including most regions, experienced an unprecedented year. After a brief “Xiaoyangchun” at the beginning of the month, under the blockade of the whole province in the spring of last year, there was a historic downturn in market activity. Property sales in most areas fell sharply in the second half of March last year, falling below 3000 units in April and below the 4000 mark in May.
However, this situation lasted only for a short time, as business and consumer confidence recovered and the market rebounded in the second half of the year, showing the resilience of most regional markets. With warmer weather and a slowdown in the epidemic, as well as a sharp drop in borrowing costs, actual home sales exceeded 8000 units in June, up more than 80 percent from a month earlier and down only 1.4 percent from a year earlier. Since July, real estate transactions have been linked all the way, and the volume of housing transactions has been hovering around 10,000 units until the end of the year.
The Toronto Housing Authority believes that despite strict public health restrictions, many industries are able to operate at relatively high levels, especially those related to average or above-average income, which form the basis for home ownership in the GTA area.
Overall, there were 95151 home sales in most regions in 2020, up 8.4 per cent from a year earlier, while the number of new listings increased by 2.6 per cent. It is this disconnect between sales and newly listed housing that accelerates the growth of average house prices. The average house price in the area rose 13.5% last year to C $930000. Since the outbreak, the average house price in the region has only dropped slightly month-on-month in September, and has risen in all other months.
Jason Mercer, chief market analyst at the Real Estate Bureau, said: “the 2020 epidemic undoubtedly brought unprecedented challenges to the real estate industry, but it did not have a negative impact on overall demand.” Looking ahead, after widespread vaccination, a strong economy and renewed GTA population growth will support continued demand for home ownership and rental housing. But in the long run, the supply of housing will still be a problem, especially in the field of low-rise housing. “