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GTA Pre-Construction Market Report: Fall 2026

A stalled condominium construction site in Toronto — a completed concrete structure with no glazing, an idle crane and an empty lot, illustrating a paused new-build market

Published 30 August 2026 · Jatin Dua, Broker of Record, RE/MAX Quantum Realty · Next update: October 2026

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Scope correction, 31 August 2026. The launch and cancellation figures on this page are GTHA figures — Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area — not GTA. Urbanation reports them for the wider region, and the “first time in at least 30 years” comparison attaches to Q1 2026 specifically rather than to the two-quarter run. The table rows have been relabelled. Source: Urbanation, 20 July 2026.

Quick answer

Between January and June 2026 the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area recorded zero new condominium project launches in two consecutive quarters — and for Q1 2026 specifically, Urbanation reports that is the first time in at least thirty years. New condo apartment sales in the GTA ran at 237 units in July 2026, roughly 80 per cent below the ten-year average, while completed-but-unsold developer inventory reached a record 5,001 units. Total remaining new home inventory stands at 18,546 units, of which 12,345 are condominium apartments. Every figure on this page carries its own period and source.

Across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, no new condominium project launched in either Q1 or Q2 of 2026 — two consecutive quarters at zero. Urbanation reports that Q1 2026 was the first quarter in at least thirty years with no launches at all. New condo apartment sales in July 2026 ran at 237 units, about 80% below the ten-year average.
Meanwhile completed-but-unsold developer inventory hit a record 5,001 units. This is what a
new-construction market looks like when it stops. Below is every number a pre-construction buyer
needs this autumn, each with its source and its date.

1. New construction has effectively paused

Measure Figure Period Source
New condo apartment sales, GTA 237 units, +40% YoY but 80% below the 10-year average July 2026 Altus Group / BILD
New project launches, GTHA Zero — second consecutive quarter. Urbanation reports the “first time in at least 30 years” comparison for Q1 specifically, not for the two-quarter run Q1 & Q2 2026 Urbanation
Launches, prior year 10 projects / 1,425 units Full-year 2025 Urbanation
Construction starts 3,272 units — down 63% from 8,854, a multi-decade low Full-year 2025 Urbanation
Cancellations, GTHA 1,022 units (Q2); 11,653 units cancelled since the start of 2024. Note this is a Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area figure, not GTA Q2 2026 Urbanation, 20 July 2026
Full-year new condo sales 1,599 units — down 60%, the lowest since 1991 2025 Urbanation

What it means for you. Two things, and they pull in opposite directions. In the
short term, there is very little new product coming to market, and what exists is being sold with
unusually aggressive incentives. In the medium term — three to five years out — the supply pipeline
behind today’s completions is close to empty, which is the classic setup for the next shortage. If you
are buying to live in and you can hold, this is a buyer’s window. If you are buying to flip on
assignment in 2028, you are betting against a lot of standing inventory.

2. Inventory is at a record, and it’s finished

Total remaining new home inventory (GTA) 18,546 units — of which 12,345 are condominium apartments (July 2026, BILD/Altus)
Unsold pre-construction and under-construction (GTHA) 48,710 units — down 37% year over year and 62% from the 2022 peak of about 127,000 (Q2 2026, Urbanation)
Completed and unsold, developer-held 5,001 units — a record high, up 68% year over year (Q2 2026, Urbanation)
Completions 29,291 units in 2025, about 50% above the ten-year average; 7,201 in Q1 2026 with a further 14,649 forecast for the rest of 2026 (Urbanation)

A note on “months of supply,” because it is the most abused statistic in this market. Three
different published figures exist — 36.5 months, 7.3 months and 92 months — and they use three
different denominators. They are not comparable and should never be blended. If
someone quotes you a months-of-supply figure without naming the basket it’s measured against, they
are quoting a number they don’t understand.

3. What resale condos actually cost right now

These are the MLS® Home Price Index benchmarks — the mix-adjusted measure, and the number I’d anchor
any pre-construction price against. All figures July 2026, from the TRREB Market Watch published
6 August 2026.

Area Apartment benchmark Year over year
All TRREB areas $535,200 −7.35%
City of Toronto $551,900 −7.09%
Mississauga $500,200 −7.27%
Oakville $562,800 −7.40%
Peel Region $486,100 −8.39%
Halton Region $533,000 −6.05%
York Region $518,400 −9.20%
Brampton $398,500 −16.44%

Etobicoke and Toronto West, district by district

District Apartment benchmark Year over year
W01 (Swansea, High Park, Roncesvalles) $545,600 −8.07%
W02 (Junction, Bloor West) $600,200 −7.29%
W03 (Weston, Rockcliffe) $515,200 −5.58%
W04 (Brookhaven, Maple Leaf) $502,400 −7.63%
W05 (Humber Summit, Jane-Finch) $480,000 −7.83%
W06 (Mimico, New Toronto, Long Branch) $583,500 −5.60%
W07 (Stonegate-Queensway) $519,500 −8.62%
W08 (Islington, Kingsway, Eatonville) $520,400 −7.73%
W09 (Kingsview, Willowridge) $493,500 +3.14%
W10 (Rexdale, Thistletown) $437,100 −9.19%

W09’s positive print is on a thin sample — don’t build a strategy on it. Toronto West condo
apartments averaged $616,629 across 199 sales in July, against 531 new listings and 1,090 active
listings. Mississauga: 124 sales, $511,649 average, 888 active listings. Oakville: 44 sales, $636,627
average, and 50 days on market — the slowest number on this page.

The comparison that matters

New condo apartments in the GTA are benchmarking at $1,054,938, up 2.5% year over year
(July 2026, Altus/BILD) while resale is down 7.35%. Do not read that as new condos rising.
With only 237 sales in the month, the index is dominated by whatever happened to transact. Urbanation’s
mix-controlled per-square-foot measure tells the real story: $1,186 per square foot in Q2 2026,
down 2% annually
. New product is drifting down like everything else — the headline benchmark
is a composition artifact.

4. The investor math, honestly

Measure Figure Period
Toronto 1-bedroom condo rent $2,292 (−4.1% YoY) Q1 2026, TRREB
Toronto 2-bedroom condo rent $3,091 (−3.2% YoY) Q1 2026, TRREB
Mississauga 1-bed / 2-bed $2,136 / $2,636 Q1 2026, TRREB
Oakville 1-bed / 2-bed $2,143 / $2,706 Q1 2026, TRREB
GTHA condo apartment rent $3.74/sq ft — $2,545 on a 681 sq ft average, −1.3% YoY Q2 2026, Urbanation
Rent incentives ~$377/month, 13% off face rents; 64% of projects offering them Q2 2026, Urbanation
Vacancy, stabilised buildings 6.8%, up from 5.5% a year earlier Q2 2026, Urbanation
Leveraged new-condo investors cash-flow negative 81%, averaging −$597/month on 2023 completions H1 2024, CIBC/Urbanation

That 81% figure is the most-quoted statistic in this market and it deserves a caveat: it is
from the first half of 2024
and CIBC and Urbanation have not republished it since. Rents have
fallen further and vacancy has risen since, so it is unlikely to have improved. I’d treat it as a
floor, not a snapshot.

The practical version: on a $700,000 suite with 20% down at current posted rates, against a $2,292
one-bedroom rent in a market with 6.8% vacancy and $377/month of incentives being handed out, the carry
does not work. That’s not pessimism — it’s arithmetic. Buy pre-construction to live in.

5. The money rules a pre-construction buyer needs to know

The First-Time Home Buyers’ GST rebate — up to $50,000

The single biggest incentive in this market, and it applies only to new construction. Full rebate on
homes valued up to $1,000,000, phasing linearly to nothing at $1,500,000
— so a $1.25M home gets roughly $25,000. Your agreement must be signed on or after 27 May
2025
and before 2031; construction must begin before 2031 and be substantially complete before
2036.

The eligibility test is stricter than people assume: you must be 18 or over, a Canadian citizen or
permanent resident, and neither you nor your spouse may have owned or lived in a home you
owned — anywhere in the world — in the current calendar year or the four preceding
ones. Once per lifetime, and unavailable if a spouse has already claimed it.

Land transfer tax

Ontario LTT applies province-wide. The first-time buyer refund is up to $4,000,
meaning no LTT on the first $368,000. In Toronto you also pay municipal LTT, with its own first-time
buyer rebate of up to $4,475$8,475 combined. Note the tests
differ: the LTT rebates require you to have never owned a home anywhere, ever, while the GST
rebate looks back four calendar years. It is entirely possible to qualify for one and not the other.
Toronto’s MLTT also gained new higher brackets above $3 million effective 1 April 2026.

In Mississauga and Oakville there is no municipal LTT, so the maximum is $4,000.

Development charges — and the deadlines on the relief

Toronto’s base development charge is $80,690 per two-plus-bedroom apartment and
$52,676 per one-bedroom or bachelor. The city’s Development Charges Reduction Program, which started
30 March 2026, cuts that by 60% for two-plus-bedroom apartments and
40% for studios and one-bedrooms — taking a 2+ bedroom unit from $80,690 to $32,276. Eligibility runs
on first building permits issued from 30 March 2026 to roughly August 2029.

Mississauga’s total per apartment unit is $100,062.43 (or $56,174.75 for units at or
under 700 sq ft), rates effective 1 August 2026 and re-indexed 1 February 2027. A 50%
reduction applies to all residential unit types
— but the building permit for footings and
foundations must be pulled before 31 December 2027.

Why you care: development charges are what a builder passes into your price, and what a
“development charge cap” clause in your agreement protects you from. Ask whether your project’s
permits fall inside these windows.

Cooling-off periods

Condominiums: ten days, in force. Section 73 of the Condominium Act gives you a
ten-day rescission right running from the later of receiving a fully signed agreement and receiving
the disclosure statement. Rescission returns your deposit with interest.

Freehold: enacted but not yet in force. The Homeowner Protection Act, 2024 amended
the New Home Construction Licensing Act to create a freehold cooling-off period, but it takes effect
only on proclamation and as of 30 August 2026 no in-force date has been confirmed by any
government source
. Various sites quote 2027; I could not verify that. Today, a freehold new
home buyer in Ontario has no statutory cooling-off period at all. Check with the HCRA before relying
on one.

Tarion deposit protection — the gap nobody mentions

Tarion protects a condominium deposit up to $20,000. On a
20% deposit against a $700,000 suite, that’s $140,000 of your money with $20,000 of Tarion coverage.
The balance relies on the Condominium Act’s trust provisions and on whatever excess deposit insurance
the developer has arranged. Ask to see it. (Freehold is different: $60,000 on homes at or under
$600,000, and 10% to a maximum of $100,000 above that.)

From 1 January 2027, buyers who notify Tarion of the transaction within
45 days of signing qualify for the maximum deposit coverage available; register later
and you fall under a sub-limit against a $15 million annual special fund. Nobody does this for you.

What I’d do with all of this

If you are a first-time buyer who intends to live in the home: this is the best negotiating position
buyers have had in this market in a decade. Prices are down across every district, developers are
sitting on record finished inventory, the GST rebate returns up to $50,000, and Toronto’s development
charge cut is being passed through on new permits. Buy finished or near-finished product where you can
see the suite, and get a development charge cap and assignment rights written into the agreement
during your ten days.

If you are an investor: sit this one out, or buy resale where the discount is real and the carry is
knowable. The pre-construction premium over resale has compressed from about 40% to 18%, which tells
you the market has already repriced the trade.

If you already hold a pre-construction contract closing in 2026 or 2027: get your closing costs
projected now, not at closing. Interim occupancy fees, development charge adjustments, HST and Tarion
enrolment add up fast, and there are more options available to you at ninety days out than at ten.

Sources

Want this applied to your actual purchase?

Send me the project and the suite and I’ll come back with the real comparables, your GST and LTT
rebate position, a closing cost projection and a carry estimate. No obligation, and I’ll tell you if
the answer is don’t buy it.

Jatin Dua, Broker of Record, RE/MAX Quantum Realty ·
437-987-1925 ·
connect@jatindua.com

Related reading

All figures as published on the dates shown and believed accurate but
not guaranteed. Market data changes monthly; this report is next scheduled for update in October 2026.
Nothing here is financial, tax or legal advice — I am a real estate broker, not a lawyer or a financial
advisor, and you should confirm your rebate and tax position with your own professionals. Not intended
to solicit buyers or sellers under contract with another brokerage. E.&O.E.

Get the real numbers on this market report

Tell me which suite or project you are looking at and I will send the actual sold and lease comparables from TRREB, a carry projection, and my read on whether the deposit structure protects you. No obligation, and I will tell you if the answer is don’t buy it.

Or call Jatin Dua, Broker of Record, RE/MAX Quantum Realty · 437-987-1925

About the author — Jatin Dua, Etobicoke real estate agent

I’m the Broker of Record at RE/MAX Quantum Realty, 799 The Queensway in Etobicoke. I write these pages the same way I work a file: read the primary source, quote it, date it, and say plainly where the source is silent or where two sources disagree. If a figure on this page has no citation beside it, that is a mistake and I want to hear about it.

I work with buyers, sellers, renters and investors across Etobicoke, Mimico, Humber Bay Shores, New Toronto, Long Branch, Alderwood and Stonegate–Queensway. connect@jatindua.com or 437-987-1925.

Please read this. This page is general information for Ontario and is not legal, tax, accounting or financial advice, and it is not an appraisal or an opinion of value on any particular property. Market figures are compiled from third-party releases on the dates stated and will change. Pre-construction purchase agreements are binding contracts with terms that vary between builders — have one reviewed by a lawyer before you sign. Believed accurate but not guaranteed; corrections welcome and I want to hear about them. Not intended to solicit buyers, sellers or tenants currently under contract or agreement with another brokerage. E.&O.E.

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