Half-million won’t buy you much in Toronto’s condominium market

A half-million dollars bought half as much space in Toronto’s condominium market as it did in other Canadian cities in 2017.

And in Vancouver, it bought nothing at all, with analysts unable to find any new condominiums at or below the $500,000 mark, according to a study by the Altus Group, a real estate consultant.

Buyers with a half a million dollars to spend in red-hot downtown Toronto had to settle for a onebedroom unit with just 430 square feet of space — that’s roughly half the size of a standard badminton court. Compare that to Calgary and Edmonton’s condo markets, where $500,000 was enough for a two-bedroom unit of between 850 and 1,000 square feet in a desirable area near the core.

Vancouver remains the tightest condominium market in the country. Altus said a drop in new sales in 2017 was due to a steep decline in new units coming to market rather than underlying demand “which remains very strong.” The 10,939 units sold in Vancouver in 2017 represented a 90 per cent sales rate of all new inventory introduced into the market.

No surprise, then, that buyers with $500,000 to spend in Vancouver “would need to go into nearby markets like Burnaby to find projects offering one bedroom units at this price point,” according to the report.

“Consumers have considerably more buying power in smaller markets such as Calgary, Edmonton and Kitchener versus the two largest markets, Vancouver and Toronto,” according to the report.

Meanwhile, frustrated Toronto buyers should take note: Those willing to go outside the Greater Toronto Area could get a whopping 1,000 square feet in downtown Kitchener.

A total of 36,429 condominiums were sold in the Greater Toronto Area in 2017, up 25 per cent compared to the previous year — the largest increase of any Canadian city. Though developers increased the number of units brought to the Toronto market in 2017, skyrocketing demand for the more affordable housing type quickly depleted supply, pushing prices higher.

“The sales activity across the country indicates that demand for new condominium apartment product was very strong in 2017, but particularly in the GTA,” Matthew Boukall, a senior director at Altus Group said in a statement.