The summer real estate market started with a chill over Toronto, with the vast majority of homes selling below asking.
In June, 93 per cent of Greater Toronto Area neighbourhoods with at least five sales saw homes go for below asking, up sharply from 71 per cent a year ago, according to new insights from Wahi, a Canadian real estate listing website.
The share of GTA neighbourhoods in underbidding territory reached the second-highest level since Wahi began tracking homebuyer competition in July 2022.
Overall, 71 per cent of all GTA homes sold below list price in June. An additional 5 per cent of neighbourhoods were overbid, while 2 per cent were selling at asking.
A gauge of sentiment
Wahi CEO Benjy Katchen noted that buyer competition varies by property type and location, and that bidding dynamics often depend on individual listing attributes.
“When a neighbourhood is in underbidding territory, it doesn’t mean that every property is selling for less than asking or that sellers are taking huge losses,” he said. “It’s a general indicator of market behaviour.”
Although the median amount by which home prices were bid down across the GTA has been rising in recent months, it stood at $22,450 in June, roughly in line with levels seen the last time underbidding was this widespread at the neighbourhood level, in December 2024.
Four-in-five condos sell below asking
Once again, bidding competition in the condo segment (–$17,300) was considerably softer than for single-family homes (–$24,974), which include detached, semi-detached, row and freehold townhomes.
Last month, 79 per cent of GTA condos changed hands for under asking, while the same was true of 67 per cent of single-family homes.
How data is collected
At the end of each month, Wahi compares the differences between median list and sold prices, in order to determine whether neighbourhoods are in “overbidding or underbidding territory.”
At least five transactions must happen in a neighbourhood in a given month for it to be included. A total of 289 neighbourhoods out of the GTA’s approximately 400 met this threshold in June.
