First-time home buyers appear to be delaying their purchases in the wake of the province’s new policies intended to cool the housing market. At the same time, consumers buying new construction homes are overwhelmingly opting for lower-priced condo apartments and stacked townhouses.Two reports released separately Friday by the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) and the Building and Land Development Association (BILD) suggest that first-time buyers are sitting back and waiting to see what happens in the cooling re-sale housing market. But among those purchasing new construction, condos are the starter homes of choice.High-rise and mid-rise apartments and stacked townhouses represented 86 per cent of new-construction home sales in the region in May, as the cost of a new townhouse crossed the $1 million mark for the first time, according to BILD.Condos comprised 75 per cent of new-construction home sales this year to date.Unlike the re-sale market, which has seen an influx of listings over the last two months, the supply of newly built homes remains constricted, especially in the single-family home category, said BILD CEO Bryan Tuckey in a press release.“The price acceleration in the condo portion of the market is especially worrisome since it not only represents the lion’s share of new housing in the GTA, it’s also making it difficult for condos to remain the affordable option,” he said.The average price of a new single-family home rose about $10,000 to $1.2 million in May from April — a 40 per cent gain over last year. Condos averaged $604,683 last month, a $30,000 increase over April and a 33 per cent rise compared to the same period last year. Ipsos research for TREB, conducted in May, showed that first-time buyers comprised only 40 per cent of those who plan to buy a home this year — down from 53 per cent in a November survey.The findings come as TREB prepares to update its 2017 market forecast on July 6. Read more ...
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