Toronto's real estate market is so bad that it's costing the City millions in lost funds

Toronto's recent housing market downfall has been financially disastrous not just for developers, investors and other property owners, but also for the City itself, which is now facing tens of millions in losses amid a dearth of real estate transactions.

According to a new report on the municipality's operating variances, there has been a substantial shortfall in anticipated Municipal Land Transfer Tax revenue during the first few months of 2025 due to "reduced sales activity," which is creating an all-around "unfavourable" funding situation.

With so few homes changing hands, the money the City expects to bring in from the levy — which is collected from buyers upon the purchase of a home — is now slated to come in at a whopping $70 million less by year's end than what was initially projected in the 2025 budget.

Even if contingency measures to offset the damage of the unstable market are taken, the year-end unfavourable net variance is forecasted to be $20 million, at best, the report says.

And this is only taking the losses from the land transfer tax into account.

While the latest figures from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) show that the number of property sales in the region declined only 2.4 per cent between June 2024 and June 2025 — which is nothing compared to a month like March, when sales were down a whopping 23.1 per cent year-over-year — last year's market was already concerningly slow, with 16.4 per cent fewer sales than the same time in 2023.