New home sales in the Greater Toronto Area rose sharply in May compared with last year’s record low, but the region’s condominium sector remained under severe pressure, with fewer than 200 new condo units sold during the month, according to a new report from the Building Industry and Land Development Association.
BILD reported 1,023 total new home sales in May, more than triple the 310 sales recorded in May 2025. Low-rise homes drove most of the activity, accounting for 830 transactions, while new condominium apartment sales reached only 193 units.
The report suggests the temporary expansion of the HST rebate helped support demand, especially in the single-family market. Still, overall new home sales remained 57 per cent below the 10-year average, mainly due to continued weakness in high-rise housing.
BILD said single-family home sales exceeded the 10-year average for the second month in a row, though sales slipped from April, when 1,100 new homes changed hands.
“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).”
Ontario and the federal government announced in March that they would temporarily expand the HST rebate for new homes in the province for one year. The measure allows all buyers to receive a rebate of up to $130,000.
Some buyers say the rebate has not yet translated into meaningful affordability. Gurpreet Singh, a potential homebuyer in the GTA, alleged that some builders are using the rebate announcement to lift prices rather than pass the savings on to purchasers.
“The rebate was supposed to help buyers, but builders are taking undue advantage of it. Since the announcement, prices have gone up, and it feels like they are trying to maximize their own profit instead of passing the benefit to customers,” Singh said.
Sherwood said the rebate rules include “defined start and completion dates for new housing projects that are too tight for most new high-rise condominium projects to meet.”
He said those conditions might be holding back condo activity, even as low-rise sales benefit from the tax relief.
“Providing clarity on these details will ensure that the momentum experienced since April continues,” he said in the release.
BILD said the benchmark price for new condominium apartments in the GTA stood at $1,029,489 in May, calling it an “apparent price floor.” The benchmark price for single-family homes was $1,427,543, down 5.2 per cent from the same month last year.
The next test for the market will be whether clearer HST rebate rules help sustain low-rise demand and ease pressure on a condo sector facing weak launches, high inventory and limited buyer confidence.
