“The Toronto house for resale market is functioning properly. Sales were high as buyers continued to take advantage of affordable home ownership opportunities. Listings grew as home owners reacted to strong sales and price growth,” said Toronto Real Estate Board President Tom Lebour. “More balanced market conditions will result in sustainable rates of annual price growth in the second half of 2010.” The average price for April transactions was $437,600 – up 13 percent compared to the average of $385,641 recorded in April 2009.

“Home sales continue to be driven by many different segments of the market, with sales growth for all major home types in both the City of Toronto and surrounding 905 regions,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Senior Manager of Market Analysis. “Home sales will remain strong in the second half of 2010, but will slip from the current record pace as borrowing costs rise.”

Elena Yurgeneva, Director of Business Development, Department of elite real estate Knight Frank, commented:

“The primary market is not characterized by an abundance of London put up for sale objects with a solid discount, and the lack of supply. Currently the volume offers a 20% lower than the 1 st quarter of 2009, the number of new homes available for buyers has reached historic lows , amounting to 975 objects in the 3 rd quarter 2009

Factors such as low interest rates on loans, the weakness of the pound sterling, which attracted foreign buyers, and the government’s efforts to support new construction and stimulate demand from the primary buyers, led to a strengthening of this market segment.

Although the process of recovery of prices in London’s new buildings are still lagging behind the growth in market prices of central London as a whole, in recent months, we saw an increase in the prices of some items, particularly in complex Embassy Court in the Seynt John’s Wood (central London). Nevertheless, in the understanding of developers, today is a good price dynamics - it is not their nominal growth, and reducing the size of discounts offered to customers.

One of the most noticeable changes in the primary real estate market of the British capital is the shift in demand from investment towards consumption. Earlier, the ratio of consumer demand for investment was 30:70 (buyers for himself / investors), but now it has changed to mirror 70:30 (buyers for himself / investors). This change is slowly beginning to influence the development projects because customers who choose to own housing accommodation, many demands on the planning of the premises and his other main characteristics. Knight Frank data on demand customers confirm that the requirements of the latter to gaining housing has increased significantly. In particular, the increased demand for housing larger area in central London. We believe that the most successful will be those projects that can create in their homes a unique atmosphere in which people would want to reside permanently.

Do not forget that investors are also not left the market - they account for one third of potential buyers. Once again sales were held at zero during the construction phase. And do not underestimate the ability of international investors. Buyers from Asia, particularly Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia have been extremely active over the past 12 months, but we can expect from them more. Using the available Internet resources, these investors are thoroughly suited to the choice of real estate, focusing on the most high-quality supply. This is good news for the market - means that developers in central London in the future even more will compete on the quality of projects, not just on price.

On the primary market of premium housing of the highest price segment recession was reflected in the last turn. Now that last year prices have risen more than 20%, developers are looking at this market with special interest. While sales fell sharply in 2008, with the second half of 2009, this segment began to come back to normal. The number of potential buyers of objects super-premium segment has not changed, the demand is at a good level. With the launch of projects such as One Hyde Park, Cornwall Terrace, The Lancaster’s and NEO Bankside, offer bonuses of new buildings will rise in 2010 and 2011. The specificity of this segment is that usually a property in such homes is part of a broad portfolio of properties of their respective owners.

In parallel with the sales of housing, the land market in London also made drastic changes. After the deep decline in 12 months the value of land in the middle of London grew by 9% in the second half of 2009, which resulted in competition for the site. However, to convince the landowners to sell plots was not an easy task, since the cost of land is still considerably lower than their peak performance. Supply reduction means that developers are forced to work with the existing proposal and make the best use of it. In particular, developers must think through the layout of future facilities to meet the requirements of today. We believe that the price of land in London continue to rise in 2010.

The worry is putting new proposals on the primary market of London. In east London accounts for 55% of new development projects - 72,212 apartments of a total of 131,414 apartments, but their construction has not begun. Although these figures sound impressive, the possibility of developers to realize the stated volume of construction limited to a lack of funding available for new projects. “

“The strong rebound in the existing home market was one of the initial drivers of economic recovery,” said TREB President Tom Lebour. “While we don’t expect to see the same rates growth moving forward, GTA households will remain confident in ownership housing as a quality long-term investment, especially as economic recovery expands across all industries.” The annual rate of growth for new listings continued to accelerate in March. The number of new listings grew by 42 per cent compared to March of 2009.

“The average home price in the GTA will continue to grow this year, but the pace will slow as we move through the spring,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Senior Manager of Market Analysis. “As growth in new listings starts to outstrip growth in sales, buyers will experience more choice, resulting in more sustainable single digit rates of average price growth.”

The average price for transactions in the first two weeks of January was $395,307, compared to an average of $332,495 for the same period in 2009. “Double-digit average annual price growth will continue through the first quarter of 2010 as sales remain high relative to listings and we continue to make comparisons to last year’s winter downturn,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Senior Manager of Market Analysis.

“After a slow start to the year, existing home sales rebounded during the second half of 2009,” said TREB President Tom Lebour. “As consumer confidence improved, many households moved to take advantage of affordable home ownership opportunities in the Greater Toronto Area. The strong residential real estate sector was a key contributor to overall economic recovery in Canada.”

The average home price in 2009 climbed 4 percent to $395,460. The average price for December transactions was $411,931. “Market conditions became very tight in the latter half of 2009. Sales climbed strongly relative to the number of homes listed for sale, resulting in robust price growth that more than offset average price declines in the winter,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Senior Manager of Market Analysis. “A greater supply of listings in 2010 will see home prices grow at a sustainable pace.”

The average price for November transactions was up 14 per cent year-over-year to $418,460. The average price year-to-date was up four per cent to $394,464. “Very strong annual growth rates for sales and average price should be expected through the first quarter of 2010, because we will be comparing the current recovery to the housing market decline experienced last winter,” according to Jason Mercer, Toronto Real Estate Board’s Senior Manager of Market Analysis. “As we move into the spring, growth rates will move to more sustainable levels.”

At the same time the amount of rental transactions increased by almsot 40% and the number of listings by roughly 60%. Families looking to rent in Toronto have more choice on what to rent and can get better prices at the moment. This is definately good news for those who rent.

Most of the increase in the numbers comes from newly build condominiums in Toronto completed at the end of 2008. The number of condominium buildings finished in the last quarter of 2008 increased by 96% compared to 2007. Many of them registered as corporations in the beginning of 2009, leading to more investor owned units entering the Toronto rental market, causing the prices for rental units to drop.

The bank also said that it will continue to monitor the financial and economic developments in the country to figure out what they can do to get to that two percent inflation rate goal the set for the medium term. They also claim that sales activity and house for rent Toronto activity keeps declining with buyers and renters taking more time to look around.