New condo apartment sales in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) fell for the fourth consecutive year in 2025 to 1,599 units — the lowest point since 1991, a new report has found.
The year saw developers struggle with record-low sales and record-high project cancellations, fewer investors and more end-users buying condos, many buyers failing to close, and record-high numbers of completed and unsold units, according to Urbanation’s fourth-quarter condo market update released Wednesday.
Sales in 2025 were down 60 per cent from 2024 and 91 per cent below the 10-year average.
Sales were down 95 per cent compared to 2021, it said.
According to the report, there were “no signs of improvement” in the fourth quarter, as the 262 sales were the lowest in a quarter since 1990.
Last year saw a record number of cancellations — 28 condo projects with 7,243 units were scrapped, representing more than double the 3,469 cancellations in 2024 and twice as many as the previous record of 3,598 units cancelled in 2018, it said.
Meanwhile, just 10 new condo projects launched in 2025.
Eight of 2025’s cancelled projects were converted into purpose-built rentals, and rental starts reached “a multidecade high” of 8,545 units, the report said.
These changes weren’t enough to offset the decline in condo starts, however, which reached “a multidecade low” of 3,272 units, the report said.
In the last three years, condo starts have fallen 88 per cent, bringing under-construction inventory to a 10-year low of about 50,480 units, it added.
Of the 10 projects that launched in 2025, 22 per cent sold, down from 24 per cent sales in 2024 and the high of 81 per cent sales in 2021.
Of the 10 projects that launched in 2025, 22 per cent of units sold, down from 24 per cent sales in 2024’s newly launched projects and the high of 81 per cent sales for projects that launched in 2021.
New condo prices reached a five-year low of $1,123 per square foot, but remained “at a significant premium” compared to resale units completed in the last three years, which sold for about $856 per square foot.
At the same time, investors “moved to the sidelines.”
Preconstruction sales usually make up more than 70 per cent of new condo sales, but they made up less than half of the sales in 2025 for the first time, the report said.
Meanwhile, a record 33 per cent share of new condo sales were in developments in the “occupancy” and “registration” stages.
“This illustrates the shift in the market towards more end-user purchasers, who have benefited from an increased supply of completed and unsold units,” the report said.
At the same time, many purchasers failed to close on pre-sold units; Urbanation found developers took back about 10 per cent of pre-sold new condos registered in 2025, some 3,000 units.
By the end of the year, completed and unsold inventory reached a record high of 3,987 units, up 131 per cent from 2024 and five times higher than in 2023, it said.
This was due, in part, to condo completions hitting record highs over the last two years.
“Completions are expected to decrease by 25 per cent in 2026 to 22,066 units before dropping to 14,366 units in 2027 — less than half the level in 2025. By 2029, virtually no new condos are expected to be delivered.”
