CONDO SALES CONTINUE RISING

Toronto’s new condo market continues to boom with a record 73-per-cent yearover-year sales increase in the first quarter of this year.

Twice as many new units hit the market compared with the same period last year, in part because more developments launched in that period, according to a report by research firm Urbanation.

It reported that 9,932 condos were sold in the first quarter of 2017 in the Toronto area and the remaining inventory of preconstruction condos hit its lowest level in 15 years.

“It’s become a very competitive market for condos on the resale side,” said Urbanation senior vice-president Shaun Hildebrand. “Buyers are gravitating more and more to pre-construction sales centres as they’re unable to find homes in the resale market.”

Urbanation also reported an increase in condos being resold in newly constructed buildings and more units being sold twice within shorter time periods.

A survey of developers found that 10 per cent of condos in Toronto were sold to foreign buyers compared with 5 per cent of units regionwide.

“This would be foreign buyers they were able to identify. What’s more difficult is local purchasers using overseas money,” Hildebrand said.

“More than half of all (developer) sales were to investors. That lines up with the share of new units coming directly into the rental market upon completion,” he said.What Urbanation hasn’t been able to track are assignments — sales known as paper-flipping — where the original buyer of a unit sells before the condo is registered, sometimes driving up the price.