When we tuned into Newstalk 1010 today for Simon Giannini’s Real Estate Talk Show, we heard a familiar voice in the opening segment. It was none other than Ben Myers, the Executive VP of Urbanation.
For those unfamiliar with Urbanation, it’s the leader in condominium market research and the authoritative source for information on Toronto’s condo market. Of course, our regular blog readers will recognize Ben from the June 29 edition of Buzz Talk.
We listened intently as Ben went into detail about “the hottest condo market we’ve ever seen.” Here are some choice facts and figures we heard during Ben’s segment:
- 9455 new condo sales in Toronto in the second quarter of 2011
- The second quarter figures broke the previous sales record by 35 per cent
- 44 new projects were launched in the second quarter, a record in terms of new product being brought to the market
- The resale market isn’t as hot, but pricing is going up by a healthy 5-6 per cent annually
- There are 40,000 condominium units under construction right now, but almost 90 per cent of those units have already been sold
- 84 per cent of all the new condominiums — preconstruction, under construction, occupying and not registered — are sold
- 16 per cent is the lowest percentage of unsold condo units the market has ever seen
Whenever there’s talk of the booming Toronto condo market, someone inevitably brings up the possibility of a real estate bubble. Giannini asked Ben for his take on the spectre of a bubble in Toronto’s condo market and Ben replied with one of the most lucid, level-headed explanations of the current market we’ve ever heard.
“The definition of real estate bubble is rapidly increasing prices. We haven’t seen that. We’ve seen in the neighbourhood of 7 to 9 per cent over the last five years in terms of annual appreciation in the market,” he explained.
“Is that a little bit higher than probably is sustainable? Yes. But it certainly is not the bubble-like conditions like what you saw in Calgary or the US where pricing went up 20 to 25 per cent in a single year. When you see that type of stuff, that’s when the red flags go up. We haven’t experienced anything like that.”
It’s always great to hear a familiar voice on the radio, especially when it’s someone who knows his facts and figures as well as Ben!
Click here to hear Ben Myers’ segment on The Real Estate Talk Show. It’s episode 29 in the player on the left side. Ben’s segment is the first on the show.
