December's New Home Sales Data was presented by Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) President and CEO Dave Wilkes in an interview with the Toronto Star's Tess Kalinowski. You can read the article in full on the Toronto Star website.  The GTA New Home Market showed declining inventory, high prices and strong sales, setting record highs in new condo apartment sales and record lows in single-family detached home sales.
 
“Low inventory and escalating prices across the board are behind the highs and lows of the sales numbers we saw in 2017,” said David Wilkes, BILD’s new President and CEO. “Our industry wants to build new homes to increase the housing supply in the GTA, but we need municipalities to work with us to expedite the process by simplifying the development approval process, updating zoning by-laws to align with provincial policies, and servicing developable land with critical infrastructure.”
 
The decline in single-family home inventory has been even more dramatic. At the end of December 2017, there were 3,481 new single-family homes available for purchase, down 74.4 per cent from 10 years ago.
 
New home prices rose again in December 2017, with the benchmark price for available new single-family homes at $1,225,774, which was 23.2 per cent above last December’s benchmark price of $995,116. Meanwhile the benchmark price for available new condo apartments was $716,772 in December, 41.3 per cent above the December 2016 benchmark price of 507,128.
 
“While many end user buyers have been looking to the new condominium apartment sector for more affordable homes, some are now starting to be priced out of this segment as well,” said Patricia Arsenault, Altus Group’s Executive Vice President of Research Consulting Services.
 
Wilkes said BILD will be raising issues of housing supply and affordability as the municipal elections approach this fall. “As the GTA prepares for unprecedented growth, we must get this right to ensure the region continues to be one of the most dynamic and vibrant places to live,” he said. “We are calling on governments at all levels to ensure that people who choose to live in the GTA can afford to purchase a new home.”