Greater Toronto Area condo sales saw a 21 per cent year-over-year increase in the fourth quarter of 2013 according to a new report from the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB). A total of 4,586 sales transactions took place in the last quarter, compared with 3,789 transactions in the same period in 2012.

“This time last year many were predicting that the condo apartment market would experience a downturn, both in terms of sales and selling prices,” says Dianne Usher, TREB president. “While there was a temporary lull in sales and price growth in the first half of 2013, we saw an about face in the second half of the year, as buyers realized home ownership remained affordable. As the demand for condos rebounded, competition between buyers increased and the pace of price growth accelerated.”

Condo prices also increased year-over-year. By the end of 2013, the average selling price for condominium apartments reached $353,665, a 6.5 per cent increase from the same quarter in 2012. Within the city of Toronto, the average selling price increased by 8.3 per cent, to $381,008. Condo sales accounted for approximately half of all home sales in the city.

The number of 2013 condo completions also exceeded those in 2012.

“If market conditions in 2014 remain similar to what we experienced in the last six months of 2013, we will continue to experience year-over-year average price growth for condominium apartments above the rate of inflation,” says Jason Mercer, TREB senior manager of market analysis. “However, there was an increase in condo completions last year. The degree to which investors list their newly completed units for sale and the degree to which these units are absorbed will play a large role in dictating the pace of price growth.”