It’s a GREAT time to sell a house – and an excellent time to buy a condo. If you’re selling a detached or semi-detached house or townhouse in the 416 or the 905, this is the time to do it. Demand is crazy, bidding wars and bully offers are the norm, and prices are breaking records all over the place. A house is the Holy Grail of real estate – in Toronto or outside the city, people are clamouring for more space, something that’s suddenly become far more important as we spend most of our time at home.
However, the story for condos isn’t quite the same: supply is outpacing demand in a pretty big way. Airbnb investors have put their vacant units on the market, new investors aren’t buying because both rents and demand for rentals have dropped and they won’t be able to cover their costs, students aren’t moving to the city (so their parents aren’t buying them condos), and the halt in immigration has taken a huge pool of potential buyers out of the mix.
So for the condo market, it’s a great time to buy, especially if you plan to live in the unit yourself, or you’re able to carry an investment for a while without renters.
One thing to remember, however, is that we haven’t seen what the long-term effects of COVID will be. Things are constantly changing. Once mortgage deferrals have ended, and we see what long-term unemployment numbers look like, that could cool what’s currently a very hot freehold market. More properties could come up for sale as financial difficulties force homeowners to sell, not to mention unemployment, decisions to leave the city due to the ability to work from home, and reduced immigration, shrinking the pool of potential Toronto buyers.