Toronto condo completions rose 124% this summer, construction activity remains near record high

Construction crews were busy completing work on 6,816 condo units across the Toronto region this summer.

The third quarter total represented a huge leap over last year, rising 124 percent above the 3,038 units completed in 2019’s third quarter, according to new data from research firm Urbanation.

The surge in condo completions over the summer pushed the total completed through the first nine months of this year to 17,596 units, 47 percent higher than through the same period in 2019.

What’s most impressive, according to Urbanation, is despite this substantial rise in completions, there are still 78,156 units under construction in the Toronto region. The firm said that it expects 5,411 units to be completed in the final quarter of the year, bringing the annual total to a record-breaking 23,007 units.

A similar completion total is expected for 2021, with 70 percent of completed units located in Toronto-proper.

The city’s pipeline of new construction condos has been burgeoning for several consecutive quarters now, but the record-breaking completion numbers are somewhat ill-timed from a demand perspective.

Condo resale listings have risen considerably through the summer and fall while the city’s rental market is also seeing a sharp increase in units listed, forcing investor-owners to slash prices in order to woo renters.

In the same report, Urbanation said that new condo sales remained strong in the third quarter, but sales levels diverged when the suburban 905 area surrounding the city and the Toronto-proper 416 area were compared. New condo sales rose 106 percent in the 905 in the third quarter, while the 416 saw sales decline by 16 percent.