A home for sale in Toronto on Feb. 4. The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board reported 17.7-per-cent decrease in the number of new listings in February compared with a year prior.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
New listings are plunging in two of Canada’s largest real estate markets, as analysts say dropping prices have left homeowners waiting for better market conditions to sell.
The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board and Greater Vancouver Realtors reported 17.7-per-cent and 6.4-per-cent decreases, respectively, in the number of new listings in February compared with a year prior.
In Toronto, the declining rate of new listings outpaced the falling rate of sales, which declined by 6.3 per cent to 3,868 in February compared with the year-ago period. TRREB data show it’s the first time that has happened since September, when sales grew year-over-year at a faster rate than new supply.
In Vancouver, the rate of sales fell faster than new listings, with transactions declining 9.8 per cent to 1,648 sales in February compared with the same month in 2025.
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Jason Mercer, chief information officer at TRREB, said the drop in listings was expected as homeowners grapple with the severity of Toronto’s housing downturn.
“There are sellers out there who are saying, ‘I don’t know if now is the right time to sell my home,’ given the uncertainty in the economy,” Mr. Mercer said.
Andrew Lis, GVR chief economist, said the market has shifted and sellers are adopting the same “wait-and-see” approach that buyers have had for the past year. Both sides are opting to wait for a market that they hope will improve.
Prices also continued to slump in both the Vancouver and Toronto markets. The home price index in the Metro Vancouver area declined to $1.1-million in February, a 6.8-per-cent decrease from February, 2025, and a 0.1-per-cent decrease from January, 2026.
In the Toronto area, the average selling price dropped to $1-million, a 7.1-per-cent decrease from the year prior and a slight increase from the previous month.
Meanwhile, February marked the fifth consecutive month where sales numbers declined compared with the previous year.
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Both the GVR and TRREB are expecting the market chill to continue, but the real estate boards said a continued trend of lower listings could inject some competition around the smaller number of homes on the market. For now, inventory remains at historically high levels.
Tom Storey, a Royal Lepage sales representative in Toronto, said sellers today are split into two camps.
First, there are sellers who live in their home and are selling to upgrade into a larger home. Mr. Storey said these consumers want to move ahead with a sale and a purchase because they’re willing to take a financial hit to facilitate a lifestyle adjustment.
On the other hand, investors are doing everything they can to hold on until the market improves. Mr. Storey said he’s fielded many calls from condo owners who want to know how much money they can get to sell their unit when a tenant decides to leave. But when they hear how low the price is, they change their mind and decide to wait before selling.
However, Mr. Storey said he doesn’t expect conditions to improve for years in Toronto’s condo market.
“The advice I give them is that, if we’re talking condos specifically, it’s likely going to take the market many years to rebound,” Mr. Storey said.
“The market has not bottomed yet in any property type, there isn’t any proof of that, so we need it to bottom out first and then trend sideways before we see any type of upward pressure.”
Condos were the weakest segment in the Toronto region, with a 12-per-cent year-over-year drop in transactions in February compared with a 3.9-per-cent drop for detached homes. Condo prices dropped by 8.8 per cent compared with 8.2 per cent for detached homes.
Mr. Storey noted that investors today have more options to deal with mortgage stress than in the past, such as relying on private lenders or extending their amortization to keep payments low and limit the pain from rent rates that are dropping in Toronto.
For months, buyers in Toronto and Vancouver have been dismayed by concerns about the Canadian economy and the country’s unpredictable trade relationship with the U.S. It’s a reason why major Canadian real estate markets were slow throughout 2025 despite lower interest rates.
Mr. Mercer said the expanding conflict in the Middle East could add further anxiety.
The conflict has also created upward pressure on Canadian bond yields, which could cause fixed-rate mortgages to rise slightly, Mr. Mercer said.
“There’s no doubt that what you see in the news is what you think about, and that will impact people’s decision-making.”
