New home sales in the Greater Toronto Area spiked in May, with a year-over-year increase of 93.93%.
GTA’s new home sales rose to 4,794 in May from 2,472 in the same month last year, according to Altus Group.
Year-to-date (YTD) sales were 13,734 in May, up by only 45.25% from last year. It was the second fewest YTD sales in the past decade.
“Over 2,500 new homes have been cancelled YTD across Greater Toronto,” Better Dwelling said. “Many of May’s [buyers] could be previous buyers [who] saw their units cancelled.”
Single-family homes led the increase in new sales, with 1,004 units sold in May, up by 210.83% from last year. Condo sales also made a big increase, with 3,790 units sold in the same month, up by 76.36% from last year.
Meanwhile, new home inventory reached 17,111 units in May, up by 23.54% from last year. The majority are condos, representing 12,537 of those units, up by 34.15% from last year.
With increasing sales and inventory, the sales-to-active-listings (SALR) ratio rose to 28.02% in May, up by 56.97% from last year. May was the second month in 2019 to hit a SALR of above 20%, which means that the market was a seller’s market once again where prices rise.
