Toronto home sales hit 'rock bottom' as experts alarmed over 'unfolding crisis'

Just in case you thought the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) new home sales market couldn't get any worse, well, things just got worse.

A troubling new report from the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), released on Tuesday, is more bad news for anyone looking to sell their home in the region, with abysmally low sales figures that continue the cliff-diving trend of the past several months.

A staggeringly low 300 homes were sold in the entire region of approximately 7 million residents during August 2025. 

This figure represents a 42 per cent nosedive from the sales figures seen the previous August, and plummeting 81 per cent below the 10-year average, according to the latest data from Altus Group.

To put these massive declines in perspective, a typical August over the past decade would have averaged out at just shy of 1,600 units sold. Just a fraction of this figure was reached this past August.

"GTA new home sales in August 2025 remained at rock bottom levels. New launches, in particular high-rise projects, over the past 12 months have been at a record low and at the same time, completions have reached a record high," said Edward Jegg, Research Manager at Altus Group. 

“With pre-construction inventory dropping dramatically, the signs are clear that the new residential sector in the GTA is basically stopping," said BILD spokesperson Justin Sherwood about #GTA new home sales in August. Read the release: https://t.co/yiHPgvMfFt. pic.twitter.com/HCr9DDQ58r

— BILD (@bildgta) September 23, 2025

"As further projects reach completion, new home tradespeople are becoming increasingly at risk of not being able to find employment and therefore joining the growing number of Canadians without work, putting additional strain on the economy."  

Of the just 300 units sold last month, 118 were condo units — itself a 59 per cent decline from the previous year, and an even more concerning 90 per cent drop below the ten-year average for August condo sales in the GTA.

Single-family home sales, while still hit hard, seemed a bit more stable than their condo counterparts. A total of 182 single-family homes sold last month was just a 21 per cent decline year-over-year and 59 per cent below the ten-year average.

And experts are biting their nails at the prospect of industry collapse, with BILD's report warning that "with new home sales stagnating at historic lows, other major markets facing similar conditions, and signs of the contagion spreading, governments can no longer ignore the unfolding crisis."

Despite stagnation on the sales front, new home inventory decreased month-over-month to 22,245 units — though this number still registers as the highest inventory available to date in the region.

Justin Sherwood, Senior Vice President of Communications, Research, and Stakeholder Relations at BILD, says that the federal government should kiss its goal of 500,000 new homes per year goodbye amid the current climate, and says, "over the next few years it will be a stretch to keep annual housing starts in the 200,000 range."

"Due to layoffs and a drought in future housing supply, residential construction workers and hardworking families looking to find a home in the 2027-2031 period will be the ones that bear the brunt of inaction," says Sherwood.