The Toronto area’s high-priced housing market is climbing again, with double-digit sales gains this summer expected to continue through the fall, according to two real estate company reports.Sotheby’s International Realty Canada says the fall luxury market will run “at full throttle” now that the Toronto region has shaken off the malaise of “a very dark period” following the Ontario Fair Housing policy and new mortgage rules.“We expect the market is going to continue to get stronger. After we turn the clock to 2019 you’re going to see year-over-year comparisons continuing to be very strong,” said CEO Brad Henderson.He expects upward pressure on prices to continue in the Toronto area, gaining in the range of 3 to 4 per cent through the fall.The Toronto Real Estate Board reported year-over-year price increases of nearly 5 per cent across all re-sale home categories in July and August. The company defines luxury as homes more than $1 million, which is actually below the City of Toronto’s August average detached house price of $1.24 million. The number of single-family homes that sold for more than $1 million in the City of Toronto in July and August rose 12 per cent. Across the Toronto region, sales climbed 20 per cent. The number of sales may have been hampered by a shortage of listings, particularly in the $1 million to $2.5 million price range, said Sotheby’s.Henderson predicts high single-digit or low double-digit year-over-year growth in 2018, particularly in the more costly downtown areas where buyers are again competing for properties.“A lot of people are wishing they had bought towards the end of spring this year because now as the demand is continuing to rise and price pressure is continuing to rise with it, they’re finding prices are starting to move in the upward direction. It’s moving away from what people might have thought was a buyers’ market,” he said.It ...
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