Toronto Condo Segment Tightens in Q2, With Rents ‘Well Outpacing’ Inflation

Toronto’s condo market continued to tighten in the second quarter of 2023, according to new data from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB), with sales up “strongly” year over year and new listings once again failing to keep pace.

More specifically, TRREB reports that there were 6,844 total condominium apartment sales in the quarter, up over 20% year over year. In contrast, new condo listings were down by more than 13%.

“This divergence between condo sales and listings also meant that active listings at the end of Q2 2023 were down by 8% compared to the end of Q2 2022,” notes the report.

TRREB President Paul Baron attributes the rise in sales to “an extremely competitive rental market.” Still, he says, “average condo selling prices remain below last year’s levels, which has helped from an affordability perspective.”

Condos in the GTA sold for an average of $737,868 in Q2, and that price was down 4.2% compared to the second quarter of 2022. Zeroing in on the City of Toronto — which accounted for two-thirds of total condo sales — the average selling price was $769,616, down 3.3% from Q2 2022.

“As sales increase relative to the number of listings available, expect condo prices to trend upward in the months ahead,” cautions Baron.

“Encouraging” Growth In Condo Rental Listings
A separate TRREB report, also released Thursday, shows that average condo apartment rents continued to “well outpace” the rate of inflation in the second quarter of the year, which is a continuation of a two-year-long trend.

At $2,532, the average one-bedroom condo apartment rent grew 11.6% from Q2 2022. In a similar fashion, the average rent for a two-bedroom climbed 9.2% to $3,264.

Over the same Q2 2022 to Q2 2023 period, the number of condominium apartment rentals reported through TRREB’s MLS® System, at 13,935, saw a 5.4% uptick, while the number of condo apartments listed for rent grew by a greater annual rate of 15.4%.

“Despite seeing an increase in the number of units listed for rent, competition between renters remained very strong. This competition underpinned higher average rents,” explains the report.

Still, TRREB Chief Market Analyst Jason Mercer says the growth in new condo rental listings was “encouraging to see.”

“If this is sustained over the longer term, the pace of rent growth will slow,” Mercer continues. “However, it will take some time to make up for the rental housing deficit that has built up over the last number of years. It will be key to see more purpose-built rental units come online to augment investor-owned condominium apartments which have accounted for most of the new rental stock in the GTA over the past decade.”