Toronto's condo 'deep freeze' could reshape housing landscape: RBC

Only 118 condos were sold in the GTA in August, down almost 60 per cent from last year and 90 per cent below the 10-year average. Photo by Cole Burston/Bloomberg

Toronto’s new condo sector is in a “deep freeze” that could reshape the housing landscape of Canada’s biggest city for years to come, warns an economist.

Pre-construction sales in the Greater Toronto Area have plunged to levels not seen since the global financial crisis, a dramatic downturn that is more than just a cyclical adjustment, wrote Robert Hogue, assistant chief economist at the Royal Bank of Canada, in a report this week.

“Investor appetite that traditionally fuelled Toronto’s pre-construction market has largely evaporated, driven by a sobering reassessment of investment fundamentals,” he said.

“The stark real