A story in the Toronto Sun caught Tembo’s eye. The topic? The resilience of Toronto real estate against historically unprecedented odds.
Brynn Lackie, a Toronto Sun reporter, titled their piece in a June 14th op-ed: “Pandemic puts strength of T.O. real estate market on display.” One of the paragraphs was telling:
“Even with less than half of the inventory, the average sale price for the GTA has risen 3% from the same month last year. That means that even with a global pandemic, turmoil in the economy, record unemployment, and an industry shutdown to contend with, the Toronto real-estate market has held. Some analysts suggest that this is further proof of its seemingly eternal strength and resiliency.”
Another article from Move Smartly, a real estate site, was titled “How is Toronto Real Estate Hot With Unemployment at 14%?” The article shows a powerful graph that outlines the fact that sales are rising every day, and that they will reach levels which would leave them even in June 2019 terms (i.e. no change). In late May CTV (one of many such reports) outlined that despite all of the COVID-19 related challenges, prices in the GTA continued to increase. The article cited stats on Toronto and GTA condo prices rising above inflation. The same article showed that while sales were falling, demand for existing stock was high.
As of now there are effectively no restrictions on any type of construction related economic activity. Realtors can continue plying their trade but should be following guidelines that the province worked out with the industry and health associations. The media Tembo has analyzed and the data we’ve crunched points to sales having falling but now being in the process of recovery. Demand for housing is strong and the stock of available houses is low, so despite all of the difficulties unleashed by the pandemic, fundamentals are strong.
With more reopening on the way, and interest rates to remain extremely low for years to come, we predict continued strength in housing. People should be confident and optimistic.