HST rebate helped boost new home sales in GTA last month but condo sector continues to struggle: report

A new home is shown for sale in a housing development in Ottawa on Tuesday, July 14, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

New home sales continued to see an increase in the GTA last month following the introduction of a temporary break on HST but the gains appear to have leveled off as some homebuyers waited for clarity on how the program will actually be administered, a new report suggests.

The latest report from the Building Industry and Land Development Association shows that there were a total 1,023 new home sales in May.

That is more than triple the record low of 310 new homes that were sold last May.

Low-rise homes accounted for 830 of the new builds that changed hand last month while the condominium market continued to struggle, with only 193 transactions involving new condominium units.

BILD says that single-family home sales were above the 10-year average for the second consecutive month but declined slightly from April when 1,100 new homes were sold.

Overall, new home sales still lagged 57 per cent below the 10-year average in May due to a particularly slow condominium market.

“While new single-family home sales surpassed the 10-year average for a second straight month, they did slightly decrease from the sales levels we saw in April 2026 – the first month that the HST rebate program was introduced. This decrease is largely due to potential new homebuyers still waiting on the sidelines for clarity on how the HST rebate will be administered,” BILD’s Chief Operating Officer Justin Sherwood said in a news release. “For the high-rise sector, condominiums continue to struggle with higher existing inventory, a price floor and very low new product launches (only one new condo project has launched in 2026).”

The Ontario and federal government announced in March that they would temporarily expand the HST rebate for new homes in the province for one year, allowing all buyers a rebate of up to $130,000.

Sherwood, however, pointed out in the news release that the eligibility requirements include “defined start and completion dates for new housing projects that are too tight for most new high-rise condominium projects to meet.”

That, he speculated, could be slowing sales in the condo sector, even as the low-rise sector appears to get a boost in the arm from the expanded HST rebate program.

“Providing clarity on these details will ensure that the momentum experienced since April continues,” he said in the release.

According to the latest data from BILD, the benchmark price for new condominium apartments in May in the GTA was $1,029,489, which it said is an “apparent price floor.” The benchmark price of single-family homes was $1,427,543, representing a 5.2 per cent decrease from the same month last year.