u/YoungSidd

Reminder that a "balanced" market looks at home sales vs new listings, NOT home prices.

Tl,dr:

Rental construction is up (which is good), but ownership construction is down (which isn't ideal).

Policymakers should find a way to boost ownership construction as well to continue bringing housing prices down.

>Lower home prices helped revive the Toronto real estate market in May with sales climbing for the third straight month.

>Those sales numbers were 10 per cent higher than April’s on a seasonally adjusted basis and 14 per cent higher than May, 2025. The month marked the largest number of transactions since November of last year.

>Meanwhile, fewer homeowners put their properties up for sale. New listings fell 2.1 per cent from April to May and were down 16 per cent year-over-year. The real estate board said this has likely increased competition for properties in some parts of the Toronto area.

>That competition, however, did not lead to higher prices. TREBB’s home price index, which removes the most expensive transactions, fell 0.2 per cent to $927,800 month-over-month.

The article also adds that the biggest decline belonged to condos and homes outside the City of Toronto.

We might be entering a weird phase were prices continue to slide but sales start to recover.

Doesn't really come as a surprise, but I worry about long-term housing affordability if this trend continues.

>Real estate company Jesta Group plans to spend $500-million to buy more than 1,000 newly built Toronto condos and turn them into rentals, taking advantage of the recently announced Harmonized Sales Tax rebate to make its foray into the city.

>Jesta is entering the market as other corporate entities are also looking to make bulk purchases of unsold inventory. That includes the $1.3-billion government-backed High Art Capital, which recently formed to buy 2,200 condo units and turn them into rentals, some of which will be rented at affordable rates.

>The housing industry is predicting that by 2030 there will be a shortage of new homes coming to the market since there are very few condo projects breaking ground today. That, along with forecasts that the country’s population will grow, means there will eventually be more demand for housing in Toronto.

>Jesta will also not purchase any unit with an interior bedroom with a glass wall that looks into the rest of the unit. “We just don’t see that as livable,” Mr. O’Brien said.
The developer will, however, buy units as small as 350 square feet. On average, it expects to spend less than $500,000 a unit, which Mr. O’Brien said is feasible given that it is looking at studios and one-bedrooms.