In toronto real estate, Toronto-area builders say a shortage of low-rise homes continues to push people into condominium apartments, which are increasing in size for the first time in years to satisfy the demand.
“The recent increase in high-rise costs can be attributed to the rise in median suite size, combined with a growing price per square foot ,” said Brian Tuckey, chairman and chief executive of the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), in a release.” This year we have find the introduction of larger suites aimed at purchasers who have been priced out of the low-rise marketplace .”
The median size of a high-rise home clambered to 809 square feet, compared to 767 square feet a year earlier. The price per square foot also rose $26 from a year ago to reach $601 per square foot, as new high-rise home marketings look to be on pace for a record year.
For the first nine months of the year, 20,596 high-rise homes were sold across the Greater Toronto Area, according to Altus Group, which furnishes BILD with its data. Those divisions accounted for virtually 60 per cent of the GTA’s 34,736 new home marketings as of the end of September.
Prices for both categories is increasing. The median price of new low-rise homes — which includes detached, semi-detached and townhouses — rose more than $60,000 in merely one month to reach a record $992,231 in September. Costs of low-rise homes are up 22 per cent of the members from a year ago.
High-rise costs in the GTA also broke records in September with the average division reaching $486,605 last month, up 10 per cent of the members from a year ago. The median detached home selling off $1,194, 771 in September.
Tuckey says the GTA’s shortage of housing furnish is driving costs across the market.
“We have a serious dwelling furnish challenge in the GTA due to a significant famine of shovel-ready ground and long and uncertain project approval timelines ,” he said.” These factors are severely curtailing the number of new homes being brought to marketplace and are causing costs to surge month after month.”
The supply of new homes available to purchase has dropped by 10,000 in a year. There were 15,421 new homes and condominiums available for buy in September across the GTA, which compares with 25,848 a year ago.
Low-rise furnish increased from August but the 1,604 homes available last month for sale still represented a 64 per cent of the members decline from a year ago, with the monthly increase attributed to a typical launch of product for September.
In all, there were just 764 detached homes available for sale across the region in September, less than a month’s furnish based on current marketings trends.
Patricia Arsenault, executive vice-president of research consulting services at Altus Data Solutions, said new low-rise home marketings year-to-date in the GTA are very similar to the situation back in 2009, before home costs started to take off.
” What has changed dramatically is the decline in options available to buyers. Back in 2009, there used to be nine low-rise homes available to purchase for every home sold. Now that ratio is less than two to one. Made the sharp drop in competitive product alongside buoyant customer interest, it’s no surprise that new low-rise home costs have doubled since 2009 ,” she said.
