Listen to this article
Estimated 4 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
New home sales hit record lows in the Greater Toronto Area last year, threatening tens of thousands of industry jobs and the province’s long-term housing supply targets, according to an industry report.
There were just 240 new home sales across the GTA in December, about 1,100 fewer units than the previous 10-year average for the month, a new report from the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) found.
The month capped off the worst year for new home sales in the GTA in 45 years of record-keeping, according to Altus Group, BILD’s source for new home market intelligence. The roughly 5,300 new home sales recorded in 2025 is 81 per cent below the 10-year average of 28,286 sales for the region, the report found.
New home sales recorded in December 2024 had previously set a record-breaking low for the month, the report said. But last month’s sales marked a 24 per cent drop in comparison.
“Meanwhile, 2026 is likely to see geopolitical concerns linger, prices remain elevated and the Bank of Canada has indicated the cycle of interest rate cuts has ended – thus the main drivers of buyer hesitancy are expected to drag on well into the year,” Altus Group research manager Edward Jegg said in a news release.
Of the new homes sold in the GTA last year, the report found, 3,247 were single-family homes — 63 per cent down from the 10-year average — and 2,067 were condos — down 89 per cent from the 10-year average.
100,000 jobs at stake, says BILD COO
BILD chief operating officer Justin Sherwood said low sales lead to fewer housing starts. Without a rebound, the report projects 100,000 construction jobs could be lost — half direct construction jobs, and half jobs for companies and services that support construction work.
WATCH | Ont. builders warn of construction job losses as market slows:
How Ontario’s slowing housing market is affecting trades jobs
Ontario’s slowing home construction market is beginning to trigger job losses in the trades. As CBC’s Shawn Jeffords reports, the warning comes from a group representing builders in the province.
Last year, the Ontario and federal governments proposed rebates of their respective portions of the harmonized sales tax for first-time buyers of new homes up to $1 million. BILD would like it removed for everyone to spur sales, Sherwood said.
“That can’t happen soon enough, quite frankly, with the numbers that we’re seeing,” Sherwood said. “When you look at new home sales, the percentage of first-time buyers in the new home market sector’s actually relatively small.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday that he’s in favour of that.
“The market would boom. But we need buy-in from the federal government,” he said.
Ontario Liberal housing critic Adil Shamji told reporters Thursday that he has no confidence in Ford to adequately increase the province’s housing supply.
“Whatever he comes out with will be another exercise in rehabbing his image and will be designed to make it look as though he’s doing something,” Shamji said.
“We have seen the number of housing starts in this province plummet. Every year is worse than the last one.”
The Ford government had promised to build 1.5 million homes by 2031. But as housing starts fell behind pace, Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said in November that number had become a “soft” target.
Ontario had about 62,000 housing starts in 2025, a 13 per cent drop from 2024, according to data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.