Canada’s housing market continues to balance the effects of population growth and declining mortgage rates against a slowing economy, rising geopolitical tensions, and wavering consumer confidence, resulting in a luxury market that remains steady, but reflected limited growth in the third quarter of 2024.

The 2024 Mid-Year Luxury Outlook℠ report is Sotheby’s International Realty’s first-of-its-kind mid-year report, delving into the pivotal, forward-looking issues shaping luxury residential property markets worldwide.

April 2024 home sales were down in comparison to April 2023, when there was a temporary resurgence in market activity. New listings were up strongly year-over-year, which meant there was increased choice for home buyers and little movement in the average selling price compared to last year.

Canada’s luxury real estate market eased into spring with modest sales gains across key metropolitan cities, as the dynamic between prospective home sellers and buyers improved, and pricing expectations continued to come into alignment.

TRREB has released their 2024 Market Outlook and 2023 Year in Review report.

The Ontario Government has set an ambitious goal of adding 1.5 million homes to the province’s housing stock by 2031. This goal reflects the urgent need to solve Ontario’s housing affordability crisis – one ultimately driven by too few homes, for too many people.

Canada’s metropolitan luxury real estate market evolved over the course of 2023 as buyers emerged from the sidelines with newly altered housing preferences and sharpened priorities, as well as negotiating power that steadily increased as the year progressed.

The Sotheby’s International Realty® 2024 Luxury Outlook report overviews industry trends in high-end residential markets around the world and highlights what you can expect in the year ahead.

As the country’s housing market continued to wrestle with the challenges of elevated mortgage rates, uneven economic performance and intense geopolitical turbulence, reviving luxury single family home sales in the third quarter of the year revealed the relative resilience and adaptability of luxury real estate buyers, as well as Canadians’ unwavering desire to attain home ownership.

The performance of Canada’s major metropolitan luxury real estate markets diverged in the first half of 2023 as local market differences strengthened following the nationwide housing boom from 2021 to the first quarter of 2022 and the period of near-universal market normalization over the past 12 months.

Canada’s luxury real estate market saw muted sales activity in the first quarter of 2023, as a shortage of housing supply across every spectrum of the market compelled real estate sellers and buyers to delay market engagement to the second quarter.

Greater Toronto Area (GTA) housing market conditions tightened in March 2023. Sales accounted for an increased share of listings in comparison to March 2022, suggesting that competition between buyers is on the rise. The average sale price was above the average list price for the first time since May 2022.

The report shows that sales of homes in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in February 2023 were down 47% compared to the same month the previous year due to the impact of higher borrowing costs resulting from interest rate hikes. Additionally, there was a drop in new listings by 40.9% compared to the previous year, which will lead to increased competition between buyers, eventually resulting in renewed price growth in the market. The report also suggests that new and innovative solutions, such as the City of Toronto's initiative to allow duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes in all neighbourhoods citywide, need to come to fruition to achieve an adequate and diverse housing supply. Overall, the report highlights the impact of interest rate hikes on the real estate market in the GTA and the need for innovative solutions to support record population growth in the years to come.

On January 1, 2023, the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act (the “Foreign Buyers Ban”) came into effect in Canada and will be in place for two years. 

As a company, Sotheby’s International Realty Canada expects that we will see continued interest and demand for Canadian real estate from purchasers from abroad who will remain fully qualified to purchase a home in Canada.

Following an era of exorbitant hyperinflation in Canadian luxury real estate, new post-pandemic benchmarks were established in 2022 as the housing market responded to a cascade of stressors.

The third annual 2023 Luxury Outlook report is an ambitious exploration into high-end residential markets across the globe.

Canada’s luxury real estate market continued to recede from anomalous historic highs over the third quarter of 2022, as top-tier inventory faded across key metropolitan areas.

The performance of Canada’s major metropolitan real estate market remained an unprecedented economic anomaly from March 2020 through to the first quarter of 2022.

Against a backdrop of global turbulence, Canada’s luxury real estate market stood as a bulwark of strength in the first quarter of 2022.

There were almost 11,000 Greater Toronto Area (GTA) home sales reported in March 2022, capping off the third-best March and second-best first quarter on record. Tight market conditions continued to support a double-digit annual pace of price growth, with an average selling price of $1.3 million. The average selling price dipped slightly month-over-month, bucking the regular seasonal trend.