Toronto, Canada’s largest city and one of the world’s hottest property markets, has a supply problem and the nation’s housing agency admits it is not quite sure why soaring prices have not spurred more construction.

New homes replace demolished ones at a sharply lower rate than early this decade, completion times for multi-family projects have doubled and prospective buyers have far fewer new homes to choose from than only a few years ago.

The reason, in part, may lie in an ambitious growth plan for the greater Toronto area the Ontario province forged over a decade ago.

The real estate market prevalent in Toronto during the first 4 months of 2017 was always going to be a tough act to follow. Below is a deeper dive into the difference we're seeing between January 2017 and January 2018. 

Toronto Real Estate Board President Tim Syrianos announced that Greater Toronto Area REALTORS® reported 4,019 residential transactions through TREB’s MLS® System in January 2018.  This result was down by 22 per cent compared to a record 5,155 sales reported in January 2017.

The number of new listings entered into TREB’s MLS® System amounted to 8,585 – a 17.4 per cent increase compared to 7,314 new listings entered in January 2017.  However, it is important to note that the level of new listings was the second lowest for the month of January in the past 10 years.

From delivery robots and autonomous trash collection, Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs (sister company to Google) plans to build its first digital city in Toronto