It’s something anyone with even a minor interest in Toronto’s condo market knows: 2020 was not the sector’s year.

Sure, the turn of the decade started out strong — sales were up ~10% and ~25% year-over-year in January and February — but when COVID-19 hit the city, the inevitable followed. That inevitability being a major drop in sales activity as would-be downtown dwellers thought twice (or, perhaps more accurately, three or four times) about actually moving into the core.

Because, let’s face it. While ideally located and — in normal times — particularly coveted, downtown dwellings are known to be relatively small.

And during a time when everyone was anticipating (correctly, we might add) that they’d be spending an increasing amount of time indoors, many weren’t willing to commit to the condo lifestyle.

Representing those in-the-air changes with tangible data, the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) reported that April 2020 condo sales in the 416 region were down 69.9% year-over-year. May’s activity was nearly as poor, registering a 58% decrease from the same month in 2019.

Summer and early fall saw fluctuations in activity, ranging from ~-13% to ~+9% changes year-over-year, but no months crossed the 20% threshold that 2020 had started out on.

That is, until December hit. 

Continue to read on: TorontoStoreys