A Toronto condominium under construction last summer near the city's waterfront.Kevin Van Paassen
New condo sales in Toronto decreased for the first time in 16 years in the second quarter, as the market cooled along with the broader housing market.
Sales of new condos have posted quarter-over-quarter sales gains since 1994, said Urbanation Inc, an information gathering company that tracks sales in the Toronto area. There were 4,991 sales in the second quarter, an eight per cent decline from the first quarter's 5,415.
"Despite the quarter-over-quarter decrease, sales during the past four quarters were near record highs," said Ben Myers, Urbanation's executive vice-president. "When we consider the rapid sales pace of the six months prior to Q2/10, the new sales market is softening. Expect a slightly slower sales pace for the remaining two quarters of 2010."
The amount of time units are sitting on the market has also increased, to 25 days in the second quarter from 22 days in the first quarter. There were 12,638 unsold units available at the end of the second quarter, an increase of 12 per cent over the same time last year.
The resale market held up far better, setting a new quarterly record of 5,076 sales, beating the previous high of 4,854 set in the third quarter of 2009. It's an 18 per cent increase over the first quarter, and five per cent over a year ago.
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Prices held steady, however, with the average selling price rising less than one per cent in the second quarter to $331,000 as buyers had a record 10,997 units to choose from.
"A flush resale supply coming kept resale pricing in check," Mr. Meyers said. "Many of these resale listings were absorbed during the quarter, bringing the number of resale listings down to 8,714 units, which allowed the strong demand during the spring months to be met without further impacting affordability due to rising resale prices."
He said prices should remain stagnant in the coming months because of a flood of new supply.
"With almost 6,000 occupied and not yet registered units in the CMA at the end of Q2/10, and the potential for as many as 12,000 completions over the remaining quarters of 2010, it's possible the addition of that many units to the market will force resale prices to remain relatively flat," he said.