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Come spring 2025,

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The once-booming condo market has cooled considerably, with listings soaring in recent months, but the surge in listings could be the “calm before the storm.”

THE Re/Max Canada Condominium Report 2024 attributes the surge in supply to sellers’ expectations that demand will increase in the fourth quarter of this year and early 2025, as the Bank of Canada is expected to cut interest rates further.

“High interest rates and strict lending policies have put a strain on first-time buyers in recent years, preventing many from achieving their homeownership goals, despite the fact that “They had to pay record rental costs that reflected mortgage payments,” said Christopher Alexander, president of Re/Max Canada.

“The current lull is the calm before the storm. In spring 2025, pent-up demand is expected to fuel stronger market activity, particularly at entry-level pricing levels, as first-time buyers and investors once again compete for affordable condo products.

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The report found that year-over-year growth in inventory listings was highest in the Fraser Valley at 52.8 percent, followed by Greater Toronto (52.8 percent), the city Calgary (52.4 percent), Ottawa (44.5 percent), Edmonton (17.7 percent), Halifax Regional Municipality (8.1 percent) and Vancouver (7.3 percent) .

Despite the influx of listings, values ​​held up “surprisingly well” in most markets, the report said, highlighting gains in Calgary (15%), Edmonton (4%), Ottawa (2.3%). and Vancouver. (1.9 percent), the Fraser Valley (1.9 percent) and Halifax (1.2 percent).

The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is the exception, with an average price down 2 percent. Although Toronto may be the latest to emerge from “more sluggish conditions,” prices have likely “bottomed out,” which is “generally evidence that a turnaround is in sight,” the report suggests.

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Nearly 16,800 condos and townhouses changed hands in the Greater Toronto Area between January and August 2024, down from 18,263 sales during the same period in 2023. The average price is now at $732,648 for apartments and townhouses, down from $747,039 during the same period in 2023, according to the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board.

In every market, there are pockets of condos that have defied general trends. In the Greater Toronto Area, condo sales increased by double digits in the first eight months of 2024 in inner-city communities like Yonge-Eglinton, Humewood-Cedarvale and Forest Hill South, for example.

“The low-rise and freehold market is showing much more activity than the condominium resale market, as activity increases with interest rate reductions,” explains Tim Syrians, broker at Re/Max Ultimate Realty Inc. in Toronto.

“The most important thing to understand is that once prices start to rise in the freehold market, more and more people will view the condominium resale market as an entry point, so the The opportunity to learn about what is available at the moment is great. very important compared to waiting for the new year.

And his message to sellers? “It will take some time for values ​​to appreciate, so pricing based on current market conditions is extremely important.”

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