Canada’s struggling condominium market is trapping potential homebuyers who want to upgrade to larger properties, with sales plummeting and little sign of recovery despite broader housing market optimism.
Condo apartment sales have dropped 75% in the Greater Toronto Area and 37% in the Vancouver region since 2022, according to a Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp report. The decline followed a rush of new supply and plummeting investor demand, with record completions of 25,572 units in Toronto and 12,442 in Vancouver delivered in 2024.
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The latest Toronto market data shows condo apartment prices fell 4.3% year-over-year to $696,424 in June 2025, according to the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board. Average resale condo prices declined 13.4% in Toronto and 2.7% in Vancouver from 2022 through the first quarter of 2025.
Toronto developers face particular challenges with 55% of pre-construction units still unsold in Q1 2025, well below the 70% pre-sale threshold typically required for project financing.
The condo market weakness contrasts sharply with other housing segments. In Vancouver, condo sales slipped 20% in April compared to 2024, while detached home sales fell just 5.3% and attached houses dropped 3.7%.
“They’re kind of stuck,” Victor Tran, a mortgage and real estate expert with Rates.ca, told Global News, describing condo owners hoping to move up to houses. He noted many had expected to use condo sale proceeds as down payments for larger homes.
“We’re pretty much at a recession in the condo market,” Robert Kavcic, senior economist at Bank of Montreal, said in May. CMHC expects the condo market to remain weak with near-record low demand, even as industry watchers forecast a broader housing market turnaround.
Developers have increasingly abandoned projects, with cancellations up 500% in Toronto and 1000% in Vancouver since 2022.
Many sellers now face difficult choices: accept losses or wait indefinitely for market recovery. TD Bank economists predict prices will likely fall a further 10% in the Greater Toronto Area condo resale market this year.
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