Canadian real estate sales have been impacted by the pandemic in an unexpected way. RBC Economics recently unpacked a trend of rising condo apartment listings. Dense cities filled with condo apartments, are seeing sellers flood the market. Meanwhile, mostly detached suburban markets are seeing inventory heading in the opposite direction.
Toronto Condo Listings Rise 134% In The City
Greater Toronto real estate is seeing a lot of condo sellers hit the market, especially in the City. The City has 134% more condo listings in September, when compared to last year. To contrast, detached home listings are down 12% over the same period. The 905 suburbs saw a similar trend, with condo listings rising 82%, and detached listings falling 34%. Not quite as extreme, but the suburbs are seeing more condo sellers as well.
Canadian Real Estate Listings
The percent change in listings for September, compared to a year before. Source: RBC Economics, CREA, Better Dwelling.Greater Vancouver Condo Listings Rise 21%
Greater Vancouver is seeing condo listings rise, and detached inventory fall – but not to the extent of Toronto. Listings of condo apartments for sale are up 21% in September, while detached listings have fallen 21%. Unlike Toronto or Montreal, the bank didn’t separate the City from the suburbs. One assumes it’s because Vancouver is smaller, and is structured similar to pre-amalgamated Toronto and Montreal.
Montreal Condo Listings Rise Over 41% In The City
Montreal real estate is seeing higher levels of condo inventory as well. In the Island of Montreal, aka the City, condo apartment listings increased 41% in September. Over the same period, detached listings fell 20%. Out in the suburbs, condo listings fell 33%, and detached listings fell 39% as well. Selling your condo is much more popular in the City, than out in the suburbs. Detached owners in both regions are hanging tight.
RBC cites a few reasons for this shift, including urban flight and investors. During the pandemic, work from home has enabled more people to seek more space in the suburbs. This is leaving urban investors with a softer rental market. A softer rental market applies downward pressure to prices, incentivizing more selling. This ironically often leads to even further selling.
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6ix times faster, I see what you did there 😉
And the winners are banks and realtors. The losers are the Canadian taxpayers and those who are forced to sell with negative equity.
The realtors are only winning for now. Soon they will be picking up their part time job which, oh wait has been gutted by lockdowns…
We shall see what the future holds for downtown Toronto condos.
Anyone with half a brain cell would know a crappy condo downtown is not worth it. Once you add mortgage payments, maintenance and tax its a bad deal for people who bought recently. They are basically pay out of their own pocket to gamble for a even bigger bubble. But they dont understand condos depreciate really quickly in the first 10 years. Once its gets to 12 ish the place will be infested with rats and roaches. There is no effective way to kill them unless u poison the residence. So most people who buy now are gambling this bubble will blow up at a faster rate than depreciation and monthly negative cash flow.
That is not going to happen, I will be so happy when these speculators blow up.
Take a look at the immigration targets announced by the Liberals today.
There will be no blown-up speculators, but regular Canadians will be forced out of their cities in record numbers if the Liberals stay in power long enough to implement their plan.
This issue is compounded by the recent completion of numerous new purpose-built rental buildings in Toronto, providing even more choice to renters. Keep it coming!
The issue was never really supply but rather demand (40%+ parabolic spike in immigration since globalist Trudeau came to power and put Canadian citizens last – see what that did to prices and rents from 2016 onwards), but excess supply can certainly exacerbate the declining phase of the cycle.
I think these condo trends are related to all the Airbnb delisting that have happened in the past 6 months.