An Overview of Ontario’s Housing Market in 2025

Over the past decade, Ontario’s housing market has maintained a steady split between non-condo (75%) and condo (25%) transfer activity.   

In 2024, we saw a noticeable shift where condo transactions peaked at 28% of total transfers, marking a cyclical high. By 2025, activity cooled and condo transactions eased by 3% year‑over‑year, reflecting affordability pressures and more cautious buyer behaviour. Meanwhile, non‑condo sales saw a 1% increase, pointing to the resilience of buyers who are motivated by long‑term housing needs rather than short‑term market movements.  

Together, these trends tell a clear story: Ontario’s market remains stable, but demand is shifting toward practicality and affordability. 

When we narrow in on Toronto, the story sharpens. The city has long been condo‑dominant, with condos consistently making up around 60% of total property transactions over the past decade. That share climbed to a peak of 66% in 2024, marking a clear high point in the cycle.  

But in 2025, the data reveals some notable volatility compared to the rest of Ontario, with condo transactions dropping about 8%. This change suggests a subtle but meaningful shift in buyer preferences. Elevated interest rates and increased carrying costs are encouraging some buyers to re‑evaluate value for space, while others are simply being priced out of the condo market’s condensed supply.  

Toronto’s data highlights how urban markets adjust faster and more sharply than the broader province.  

In 2024, we saw new‑build transfers reach an all‑time high across Toronto. That peak reflected the culmination of construction projects launched during the pandemic‑era boom when demand, population growth and development pipelines were all hitting their stride.  

By 2025, however, new‑build activity declined by about 12%, signaling a return to more typical levels as that wave of completions eased and developers faced the reality of higher financing and construction costs.   

Meanwhile, resale activity held relatively steady, dipping only 2% year‑over‑year. That resilience points to buyer demand helping to stabilize overall transaction levels even as new builds cooled.  

Power of sale activity continued to increase in 2025, extending the strong growth trends seen over the past few years. While the volume still represents a small share of total transactions, the pace of growth is telling as it reflects the financial strain some homeowners are experiencing under prolonged higher interest rates and elevated living costs.  

This trend may also indicate that more households are reaching the limits of their payment flexibility, particularly those renewing mortgages at significantly higher rates or carrying variable‑rate debt.   

Overall, the rise in power of sale activity reminds us that market normalization doesn’t impact everyone equally. Even as overall sales stabilize, portions of the market are feeling sustained financial pressure. Monitoring this data helps us gauge early warning signals about credit health and housing stability across Ontario. 

As we’ve seen, Ontario’s overall housing activity has been shaped by shifting affordability and financial pressure. To understand how those forces are playing out let’s look at what’s happening within different buyer segments.   

Over the past year, Ontario’s buyer mix has shifted considerably. Multi‑property owners were the largest segment during the investment-driven peak of 2022, but this segment has experienced a sharp decline in market share, falling to third place. Rising interest rates and tougher lending conditions may have tempered this segment’s appetite, freeing up space for other buyer segments.   

First‑time homebuyers have rebounded strongly, now leading market demand. This has been supported by modest price corrections and a slight improvement in affordability, helping new buyers enter the market after sitting on the sidelines through the high‑rate environment.  

The life‑event segment has remained steady, but their share of total activity has increased because overall transaction levels have slowed.   

Transfers by movers remain well below pre‑2022 levels. Higher borrowing costs have constrained mobility, and even with some rate easing, many owners remain “locked in” by the cost of carrying a new mortgage.  

When we look at the price point that the buyer segments are purchasing at, we can see that across Ontario, the average transfer values by buyer classification have remained broadly consistent over the past few years, suggesting that price corrections have largely stabilized.    

Focusing on Toronto’s non-condo market, some distinctions stand out. First‑time homebuyers continue to transact at the lowest price points, and average purchase values for this group declined further in 2025. That mirrors the wider downward trend in non-condo prices, but it also shows that first-time homebuyers may be targeting more affordable sub‑markets or smaller properties. 

In this section of the report, we’ll focus on the most active buyer segment in Ontario: first-time homebuyers. Their activity often signals confidence, affordability and accessibility within the broader market.

Our analysis of first‑time homebuyer behaviour will start with one key indicator: the average age at which Ontarians enter the housing market. This measure helps us understand not only buying power, but also the point in life when people are finally able to purchase their first home.

The data tells a clear story. In 2015, the median first‑time buyer age was 36. Just five years later, by 2020, it had increased to 38. Fast‑forward to 2025 when the average age reached a high of 40.

This steady upward trend shows that Ontarians are entering homeownership later than ever before, which is a direct reflection of ongoing affordability challenges, rising borrowing costs and the higher deposit thresholds now required to enter the market.

Essentially, what used to be an early‑career milestone has shifted deeper into mid‑career, as prospective buyers need more time to build savings or equity before taking that first step into the market.

Even with recent price moderation, this age trend highlights the affordability issues that continue to shape demand, delaying entry, but not diminishing aspirations.

Across both existing and new multi-property owners, two‑party purchases dominate transaction volume, indicating that shared ownership remains the most common way to participate in the market. Among new multi-property owners, two‑party buyers account for the largest share of purchases, reinforcing that entry into investment ownership increasingly requires pooled financial capacity.  

At the same time, there is a notable emerging cohort of new, single‑party multi-property owners, representing roughly 20% of multi-property owner purchases. This suggests that while affordability pressures remain significant, a subset of buyers still has sufficient capital to enter the investment market independently.  

Larger purchasing groups of three or more parties remain a small and declining share of multi-property owner activity, particularly among existing multi-property owners. This indicates that rising costs are not leading to widespread large‑group or institutional purchasing, but instead are encouraging small, more targeted purchases.

Among this cohort of new individual multi-property owners, property type preferences remain fairly balanced between condo and non‑condo, though there’s been a modest shift toward non‑condo properties compared to 2024. That movement suggests a growing appetite for larger homes, perhaps rental conversions or smaller secondary units, as buyers look for more flexibility and stability in returns.  

From a geographic lens, the regional distribution has stayed relatively consistent year‑over‑year, but there’s been a slight pullback in Toronto alongside a small uptick in the York region. This could indicate that newer solo buyers are seeking opportunities just outside the downtown core, where price points and yields may be more balanced.  

On the financing side, mortgaged multi-property owner purchases have risen slightly since 2024, signalling that leverage remains a key tool even for individual buyers, particularly as property costs remain high across most of the province.  

What’s most notable, though, is the generational shift. Single‑buyer, mortgage‑free multi-property owner purchases among Baby Boomers have surged, climbing from 20% to 31%. That sharp increase points to older investors drawing on accumulated equity or liquid capital to expand portfolios without taking on new debt. Meanwhile, Gen X and Millennial multi-property owner activity has declined, underlining their greater sensitivity to affordability and financing conditions in today’s environment.  

Overall, this profile shows a changing face of multi-property ownership in Ontario: one where experienced, equity‑rich individuals are sustaining activity, even as younger, more leveraged buyers step back.  

While the profile of a new, single-party multi-property owner has changed since 2015, these changes have not been uniform. The most notable shift has been in property type, while financing behaviour and age remain relatively consistent over time.  

Historically, new multi-property owners primarily entered the market through non‑condo properties. Since 2020, however, condo purchases have increased steadily, bringing the split between condos and non‑condos close to even by 2025. This reflects a meaningful change in the types of assets new multi-property owners are choosing.  

In contrast, financing patterns have been remarkably stable since 2015. Mortgages continue to be used in roughly three‑quarters of new multi-property owner transactions, with only modest variation year-to-year. This suggests that leverage remains a core feature of how new solo multi‑property owners enter the market.  

Similarly, the average age of new multi-property owners has changed only gradually. While there is a slight upward trend in recent years, the age profile overall has remained relatively stable, hovering in the low‑50s across the decade.  

Overall, the data suggests that the pathway into multi‑property ownership has evolved primarily through what is being purchased, rather than who is buying or how purchases are financed.  

So far, we’ve looked at who’s buying and how they’re behaving. To round out the picture of Ontario’s housing ecosystem, we now turn to the sellers. To start to understand seller behaviour we’ll look at how long homeowners are holding onto their properties before selling.   

Holding periods have steadily increased since 2021, signaling a decline in market liquidity as fewer properties are cycling through the resale market. Teranet measures this by analyzing the time between a homeowner’s purchase and their subsequent sale. Over the past decade, the trend has been clear across both property types.  

This trend is consistent across regions, but it is most pronounced in Toronto and other high‑cost markets, where average holding periods have risen sharply. Condo holding periods have also increased, but remain shorter than non‑condos, reflecting greater turnover in that segment.  

Longer holding periods suggest that owners are less willing or less able to sell, likely due to high replacement costs, affordability barriers, and locked‑in financing. As a result, fewer homes are cycling back into the market, which has implications for overall supply, market liquidity, and affordability over the longer term.  

The key takeaway is that rising prices and higher costs are not only reshaping who buys, but also how long owners hold onto their homes, reinforcing supply constraints in already tight markets. 

Next, we’ll look at how average holding periods vary by region, and how that pattern differs between condos and non‑condo properties across Ontario.  

For condos, holding periods are generally shorter and more concentrated in the 6-to-8-year range, particularly across the GTHA and surrounding regions. This reflects higher turnover and greater mobility in urban and condo‑heavy markets, especially where condos serve as entry‑level housing.  

In contrast, non‑condo properties are held much longer, often 10 to 15 years, with the longest holding periods concentrated in the GTA, surrounding commuter regions, and more rural markets. Toronto stands out with especially long non‑condo holding periods, underscoring the replacement cost and affordability barriers facing homeowners.  

Overall, these maps highlight that ownership duration increases as properties become more expensive or harder to replace, reinforcing the idea that affordability pressures are contributing to longer holding behaviour and reduced housing turnover.

In 2025, the share of properties sold at a loss increased, pointing to the growing impact of declining prices across parts of Ontario’s resale market. While overall volumes of properties sold at a loss remain modest, this uptick is an important signal of shifting market fundamentals.  

The pattern is clearest among properties purchased during the pandemic peak, especially in 2022, which have since been resold in 2025. These transactions show the highest rate of losses with just over 36%, largely reflecting price corrections from those elevated entry points and the increased cost of carrying higher mortgage rates.  

To dig even deeper into this trend, we can look at whether certain value ranges of properties were more prone to selling at a loss than others. Properties across all value ranges purchased in 2022 and sold in subsequently show elevated rates of loss. This trend is particularly prominent when we look at properties purchased in 2022 and resold in 2025 in the sub-$1M segment. 40% of these properties sold at a loss, highlighting significant risk in the most affordable price tier.   

The $1M to $3M price tiers, which represents the most active portion of the market, also recorded a high loss rate of 34%, indicating that loss exposure is not only limited to entry-level properties but extends to other core markets segments.