Resilient Toronto condo market faces test after March sales surge: Sotheby’s

Everyone’s spring plans are up in the air at the moment, and it’s no different for Toronto’s luxury condominium market.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has cast a long shadow over Canada’s real estate markets for 2020. Yet, despite all the economic uncertainty, sales for luxury condos in the GTA remained strong in the first 15 days of March even as concerns over the rapidly spreading coronavirus began to escalate, according to one of the country’s largest brokerages.

In a recently published report, Sotheby’s International Realty Canada voiced its confidence in the resilience of the GTA in the face of the coronavirus crisis. The brokerage’s Top-Tier Spring Outlook Report for 2020 shared not only its current findings on regional luxury condo sales activity, but also what we might expect from the market post-pandemic.

“Uniquely positioned as the country’s economic epicentre as well as its leading destination for immigration, migration, and global investment interest, the region and its top-tier real estate market are expected to remain resilient in the long-term, with any pullbacks in spring activity to be temporary,” Sotheby’s stated in the report.

From March 1st to 15th, momentum from January and February activity carried through. In the GTA, 82 condo units priced over $1 million sold, a 46 percent year-over-year jump. Toronto did slightly better in the first half of March, with sales in the $1 million-plus category up 70 percent annually to 75 units sold. The GTA and the City of Toronto shared the exact same results in the $4 million category during this period — one condo sold, an improvement from the zero sales in this category during the same period in 2019.

Luxury condo sales momentum that began at the start of the new year is credited for healthy activity during the first half of March. During the first two months of 2020, top-tier condo sales in the GTA delivered a strong performance, with sales over $1 million increasing 117 percent year-over-year, with 314 units sold. Comparably, condo sales rose 112 percent in the City of Toronto annually, for 284 units sold. Six condo units priced over $4 million sold in the same time period, an increase from the one unit sold in 2019.

“While uncertainty lies ahead, housing will remain essential, activity will continue and the long-term prospects for Canadian real estate are solid,” said Don Kottick, President and CEO of Sotheby’s International Realty Canada in the report.