Investment News

The choice between buying a new independent house and owning a new condo in Toronto would soon be a difficult one. According to Canada’s leading real estate information services company, RealNet Inc., the price difference between a new single-family detached home and a new condo has reached almost $300,000 in February 2015.

Another company, BuzzBuzzHome’s information show the average price of a new independent home or townhouse was $733,578 in February, compared with $442,672 for a condo, reflecting a gap of $290,906. This means, the price of a new home has gone up 12 percent from the same period in 2014, but the price of a condo jumped just by one percent. BuzzBuzzHome is known for providing map based search results for all new residential properties.

The trend is similar to Vancouver, informed Brendan Pyne, RealNet Canada business development manager. In fact, Toronto is 10 years behind Vancouver when it comes to such kind of price difference in the housing market, he added. The shortage of new land to construct independent houses or townhomes forced many property developers consider high-density developments, resulting in thousands of options for condominiums in the greater Toronto area.

Though most of the land is in the 905 areas, it denotes Toronto’s congested suburbs, which is not a preferred address for many. However, the average price of a resale independent property in the 416 area is over a million now —  an increase of 8.8 percent from last year, the average price of a resale condo in the same area could be somewhere around $369,655, reflecting a slight decline from 2014.

With the current real estate scenario in Toronto, forget owning an independent house with a backyard; the average size of a new condo is just about 800 square feet, at least 125 square feet lesser from 10 years ago.

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