Members of the Building Industry & Land Development Association receive monthly internal newsletters written by the foremost housing economists in Canada.

The Canadian Home Builders’ Association newsletter is written by Dr. Peter Andersen. The BILD newsletter is authored by Dr. Frank Clayton.

They comment on the Greater Toronto condo market this month, both from the rental perspective.
Clayton writes that the global real estate and investment community must be “spellbound” by what is happening in the new condominium apartment market in the GTA – with both April and May sales breaking all previous records for these months. 

“The 2,433 May sales bring sales this year to 11,208 units, and we still have seven months remaining,” Clayton notes.

Knowing that investors are significant buyers of new condos,  Clayton examined the health of the GTA resale condo rental market last month and concluded there is “no sign yet of an oversupply of rental condos.”

He points out that the latest Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation  survey of vacancies in conventional rental apartment buildings (excludes rental condos) conducted in April is positive for rental condos take up with the conventional rental apartment market in the GTA tightening – the overall vacancy rate declined to 1.6 per cent from 2.7 per cent a year earlier.

Clayton sees Multiple Listing Service (MLS) resales of condo apartments are “still characterized by momentum with sales strong, listings dropping and average prices rising.”

Meanwhile, Andersen writes, “Despite the surge in multi-family housing starts, rental markets are getting tighter in Canada. The national rental market vacancy rate has declined to 2.5 per cent – down from 2.9 per cent a year ago. The 1.6 per cent vacancy rate in Toronto is well below the national average.”

Stephen Dupuis is President and CEO of the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD). Find him on Twitter (twitter.com/bildgta), Facebook (facebook.com/bildgta), and BILD’s official online Blog (bildblogs.ca).