There were 901 single-family home sales in the Toronto region in April, more than triple the number from a year prior.Carlos Osorio/Reuters
Wider tax breaks on newly built homes in Ontario are driving sales in Toronto’s beleaguered market, according to new data from Altus Group.
There were 901 single-family home sales in the Toronto region in April, more than triple the number from the same period a year prior, and 21 per cent higher than the 10-year rolling average.
“The market is responding heavily in single family homes at the moment,” said Justin Sherwood, chief operating officer at the Building Industry and Land Development Association, which published the data. BILD is a non-profit lobby group that represents builders, developers and renovators in the Greater Toronto Area.
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The increase in sales comes as Ontario and the federal government announced that developers could be eligible for up to $130,000 in tax breaks on new builds worth up to $1.5-million. Developers are able to pass savings onto buyers. The rebate came into effect on April 1 and runs through to March 31, 2027.
The new rebate extends an earlier sales tax break, which was only available to first-time buyers, to everyone.
However, the tax breaks aren’t enough to revive Toronto’s condo market.
In April, only 199 condos sold in the Toronto area. That’s a 39-per-cent increase from 143 in the same period last year, and still down 88 per cent from the 10-year rolling average.
The HST rebate comes as housing markets in major Canadian cities struggle with low demand. Buyers have waited on the sidelines for prices to drop further, and their purchasing power has been dampened by rising mortgage rates since the onset of the pandemic.
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