New suburban condos just outsold the 416 for first time ever

Over half of the new condos sold in 2020 in the GTA were located in suburban “905” areas of the region — a first in the several decades that market data has been collected.

There were 9,288 new condo units sold by home builders last year in the 905, enough to narrowly beat out the 8,959 units sold in the City of Toronto. The 2020 sales total for the 905 was the third-highest ever recorded behind only 2019 and 2017, according to new data published today by Urbanation.

Meantime, new condo sales in the City of Toronto were down 38 percent compared to 2019’s total, a 15-year low for the market.

The strength in the suburbs was far from enough to make up for the weakness in the core as overall new condo sales for the Toronto region were down by 28 percent. It was the lowest annual total for the region since 2013, Urbanation said in a media release.

From a quarterly perspective, it was a volatile year for new condo sales. Activity in the typically busy second quarter was decimated by pandemic-induced lockdowns and economic uncertainty. New condo sales bounced back for a record-setting third quarter before simmering down for a lacklustre final stretch, with fourth quarter sales down 43 percent from the same period in 2019.

Urbanation said the full-year sales total was in line with the number of new condo launches recorded in 2020. There were 18,004 units brought to market last year, significantly lower than 2019’s 25,296 unit total.

“The GTA new condominium market recorded a respectable number of sales in 2020 as the industry pivoted to a virtual sales environment amid lockdowns caused by COVID-19,” said Urbanation President Shaun Hildebrand.

“The shift in activity to the 905 region accelerated last year as demand for relatively affordable suburban sites intensified alongside the broader real estate market,” he added.

Home builders may have been more hesitant than usual to launch new condo projects last year, but when it came to construction activity, they were firing on all cylinders. There were 26,662 units that began construction in the Toronto region in 2020, the second-highest result of record and up nine percent from a year earlier.

According to Urbanation data, there were 81,029 condo units under construction in the region by the end of 2020, another record-breaking figure.