Hardly anybody is buying condos in downtown Toronto anymore

The condo market in Toronto seems to be as unpredictable as ever in recent months, oscillating between seeing prices and sales volumes fall and rebounding back hard in various parts of the city and the GTA at large.

Condos were the only housing type in T.O. that took even somewhat of a hit due to the health crisis — in part due to the flailing rental market as people left the city amid work-from-home trends and new Airbnb regulations came into place — which was good news for those looking to finally get into the home ownership game for slightly less money.

But new data from May courtesy of condo listing site Strata shows that sales in the region are down again after a flurry of activity from late 2020 into the first few months of the year.

The number of condos switching hands was up this May compared to the same month last year given the fact that we were in the fairly early days of pandemic shutdown back then, but compared to a very hot March 2021, sales numbers were down a whopping 23 per cent.

This follows a drop in April, too, as things began cooling off and residents gave up on the idea of condo ownership given the high prices and competition.

Downtown Toronto in particular saw its greatest fall in a year, with sales down 19 per cent, which Strata's people say "solidifies the continuation of a downward trend after the market’s long-awaited plateau in April."

Prices were slightly down, too, at $1,066 per square foot downtown in May compared to $1,091 per square foot in April. The average price for a condo sold in the GTA in general in May was $782 per square foot or $676,000.

Industry experts aren't exactly in agreement about what comes next, as far as prices and sales numbers are concerned, with some saying that prospective buyers are just waiting out lower prices and others believing that many have let go of the dream of home ownership in the city and moved elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Toronto has officially become less affordable to buy residential property in than the notoriously expensive cities of New York and L.A., with home prices overall expected to keep on skyrocketing, even if activity is chilling ever so slightly.