Canadian home sales in 2018 dropped by 21%
Ephraim Vecina
Canadian Real Estate Wealth
Amid an overall trend of moderation nationwide, condo sales continue to exhibit significant regional variances, according to the latest Altus Group Housing Report.
Throughout Canada, a little over 48,500 condo apartment sales took place last year, with the volume significantly falling by 21% from the nearly 62,000 deals completed in 2017.
Much of this slowdown stemmed from significant weakening in the GTA market, which suffered a 38% year-over-year decline to approximately 21,400 transactions.
Despite this flaw, GTA still accounted for almost half of all sales in the areas covered by Altus. These locales include other major Ontario markets in the Greater Golden Horseshoe region.
In Vancouver, declines in condo market sales performance have eased, from a massive 31% year-over-year drop in 2017 to just a 7% shrinkage in 2018.
According to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, overall residential sales fell by 29.1% year-over-year in April, down to 1,829 homes sold.
Inventory saw the addition of 5,742 new for-sale listings last month, up by 16% from the 4,949 new listings in March. Overall supply in Greater Vancouver stood at 14,357 homes for sale, around 46% larger than the availability on April 2018.
Meanwhile, Montreal enjoyed its third straight year of growth in condo deals, having seen a 19% annual growth in 2018. The market also reached its highest number of condo apartment transactions (around 8,100 deals for the year) to date.
Over the past few quarters, Montreal’s real estate boom has helped the city reach a budget surplus of $212.7 million last year – amounting to approximately $130 per resident, and marking the second highest registered since 2012.
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