Canada's largest housing market showed no signs of slowing down in March.
Toronto had another month of record sales and price gains in March, according to the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB). There were 15,652 property sales across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in March, representing a 97% increase from the same month a year earlier. The board noted that sales in the second half of March were up 174% on a year-over-year basis.
The average selling price of a home in Toronto during March climbed 21.6% year-over-year to $1,097,565 amid a glut of inventory as active listings slumped 0.7% in the month.
Demand in the Greater Toronto Area outside of the downtown core was particularly strong in March. Detached property sales surged 111.6% year-over-year in the 905 region that includes cities such as Mississauga, Hamilton and Oakville. The average selling price for those detached homes in the 905 region rose 31.4%, which was the strongest price growth for any of the major categories tracked by TRREB.
TRREB attributed the March performance to a combination of low interest rates and the work-from-home trend, which have combined to propel demand for more space among home buyers – particularly outside of Canada’s biggest urban areas.
The ongoing surge in Toronto’s housing market has prompted calls for policy interventions on the part of various levels of governments and the Bank of Canada, with many analysts claiming that a bubble is forming in Canada’s housing market.
