Top Real Estate Agents in Toronto.

Toronto Real Estate News

Best 5-Year Variable Mortgage Rates in Toronto

Peoples Bank

1.15%

Get This Rate

Alterna Savings

1.20%

Equitable

1.30%

Get This Rate

TD

1.55%

Get This Rate

CIBC

1.59%

Fixed Rate

Variable Rate

Check Canada Mortgage Rates From 40+ Lenders

December 2021 ended off a year in which Toronto’s housing market broke all-time records in sales and average prices as the GTA remained one of the hottest housing markets in Canada, yet the month of December itself was less spectacular. Looking specifically at December 2021, the average sold price in Toronto was $1,157,849, a 24% year-over-year increase and just below the $1,163,323 all-time high seen in November 2021. Sales for the month of December 2021 are also down 16% year-over-year, while new listings in December 2021 are down by 12% year-over-year.

Looking back at year to date (YTD) numbers for Toronto’s housing market in 2021, the average sold price of $1,095,475 for the year was an all-time high, and is also 18% higher than the average sold price in 2020. Total sales for the year of 2021 is also up 28% compared to 2020. Meanwhile, YTD new listings increased by only 6% compared to 2020. As average home prices in Toronto climbed throughout the year, growth in home sales outpaced the growth in new listings. This helped to push the average listing days on market to just 13 days for 2021. That’s down from the average listing days on market of 18 days back in 2020.

Toronto’s tight housing market continued to be competitive this month. The number of active listings in Toronto was more than cut in half, falling from 7,892 active listings in December 2020 to just 3,232 active listings in December 2021. At the same time, 6,031 sales in December 2021 outnumbered the 5,174 new listings this month, helping to push up prices and competition for listings. This has caused the average sold price to be 109% of the average listing price in December 2021, an increase from the 108% ratio seen in November 2021 and well higher than the 101% ratio seen last year in December 2020. This means that the average home in Toronto was sold for 9% more than its listing price this month.

Average Toronto home prices across the GTA increased to $1,157,849 for December 2021. One year ago, the average Toronto home price was $932,222 for December 2020. This puts the current average home price in Toronto at a 24% year-over-year gain for December 2021. Toronto’s sales to new listings ratio continues to rise, hitting 116% for December. However, the 12-month moving average SNLR remains at 73%. In comparison, it was 72.7% in October 2021 and 70.6% in September 2021. This puts Toronto’s real estate market firmly in a seller’s market. Average listing days on market increased to 14 days in December 2021, an increase from 13 days in November 2021.

Breaking Toronto’s average home prices down into categories, the average price of detached homes reached $1,598,735, the average price of semi-detached homes was $1,181,046, the average price of townhouses was $1,136,657, and the average price of condos was $711,933.

Out of all home types, townhouses had the largest year-over-year increase in average sold prices, increasing by $265,447 over the past year for a 30.5% gain year-over-year. That’s a small dip from the 46% year-over-year increase that townhouses had last month in November 2021. Runner-up in terms of year-over-year price growth was detached homes with a 29% annual gain in average prices, followed by semi-detached homes with a 26% increase year-over-year. Condo prices lagged behind with an 18.5% increase year-over-year.

-----

The expansion of the CMHC First-Time Home Buyer Incentive will likely provide a short-term boost to condos in the Toronto region. First-time home buyers in the Toronto CMA spanning from Oakville to Oshawa, Vancouver CMA, and Victoria CMA are eligible to borrow 5% or 10% of a property's price from the Federal government for their down payment interest-free. The expansion increased the maximum household income limit from $120,000 to $150,000 and the total borrowed amount from 4x household income to 4.5x household income, which increases the home price limit from approx. $500K to more than $700K.

In addition, the CMHC has recently decreased their standards for insured mortgages. This reverses the increase from last year and drops required credit scores from 680 to 600 and increases GDS and TDS ratio limits to 39% and 44% from 35% and 42%, respectively.

However, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) and the Department of Finance Canada have recently raised the benchmark mortgage stress test rate for both insured and uninsured borrowers from 4.79% to 5.25%, limiting affordability for marginal buyers.

Mortgage rates have risen from their 2020 lows but have remained stable for the past few months. This low interest rate environment is expected to change by the second half of 2022 when the first of potentially many rate hikes is expected. In their last meeting on October 27th, the Bank of Canada maintained their near-zero target overnight rate but announced that they will end their bond buying program. Higher bond yields could raise mortgage rates and lead to decreased affordability in Toronto.

About Toronto Real Estate

Ontario is home to the largest number of real estate agents in Canada: the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) alone represents over 62,000 agents, or more than 45% of the total agents in Canada represented by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).

Toronto has been experiencing explosive growth in recent years in both its population and housing market. This population growth is not evenly distributed throughout the city of Toronto, however, with a significant portion concentrated south of Bloor in the downtown area, especially in the Waterfront communities, as well as the neighbourhoods west of the Downtown.

Total transactions for calendar year 2020 amounted to 95,151 as reported through TRREB's MLS® System with the number of total new listings still reaching 150,000 over the year or on average over 10,000 a month despite a sharp drop in early 2020. New listings figures are helped by a surge in listings in summer 2020 through to the end of the year, with over 15,000 new listings per month for the second half of the year.

In 2020, the average selling price of a home in Toronto was $929,699. Based on the latest Toronto housing report, the average selling price for residential properties hovers well over $1 million; more specifically: $1,423,807 for detached properties, $1,031,580 for semi-detached properties, $977,127 for townhouses, and $688,568 for condominiums or apartments for August 2021. For commercial properties, around 1,000 are sold each year and just under 25 million square feet of leased commercial property space.

Regarding real estate commissions in Toronto, the average combined real estate agent commission is between 3.5% to 5% of the total selling price. Real estate commissions are split between the buyer’s and seller’s agents. Higher commissions are possible, but the standard rate is 5%.

Within the GTA, a recent survey conducted by TRREB revealed that 30% of Toronto residents indicated that they were likely to purchase a home over the next year and 49% of recent home buyers werefirst-time home buyers. The most popular home type for intending buyers was the detached house which made up 46% of all residential property sales in 2019.

The second most popular home type was the condominium or apartment, which made up 27% of all residential property sales in 2019. Toronto has 2,326 high-rise buildings - a large number that reflects factors including population density and public transportation. In 2019, the condominium apartment market segment experienced the most dramatic year-over-year price growth with a 6.4% price increase from 2018, but prices are still more affordable compared to other property types especially for first-time home buyers.

With the plethora of choices on the market and the number of agents available, we understand that buying or selling a property can be overwhelming. Choosing the right agent is one of the most important decisions you will make, and that is why we are here to help. We have accumulated some of the best agents in Toronto and developed honest and transparent profiles to make your decision-making easy and convenient—contact any of them straight through the website and secure your own real estate journey today.

Toronto Commission Structure

Real estate commissions are the fees that home sellers pay to the seller and buyer real estate agents for their services. In Toronto, the total commission rate is set anywhere from 3.5% to 5%. Seller agents usually get 1% to 2.5% of the total commission with the buyer agents getting 2.5%. You can use our calculator provided below to calculate your real estate commission estimate for Toronto. For other cities in Ontario, please visit our Ontario real estate commission calculator page for more information.

How Much Will a Toronto Real Estate Agent Cost Me?

If you are a Toronto home buyer, then there is no direct cost to using a Toronto real estate agent. However, this is not a rule set in stone. Some sellers might not pay for a buyer's agent’s commissions. If you are selling your home, then the cost of an agent will depend on the agents’ commission rate and the price that your home is sold for.

For example, if you sold your home for $800,000 and the commission rate was 5%, then the total commission would be $40,000. Sales tax (HST) is charged on real estate commissions in Toronto, which means that the total that the seller would need to pay would be $45,200. Instead of receiving the sold price of $800,000, the seller would receive $754,800.

How much will the buyer pay in commissions? The home buyer will pay $0 in commissions, but they will be paying the purchase price of $800,000. In a way, the buyer is also paying the commission as it can be seen as being baked into the price already.

Real estate commissions compensate Toronto real estate agents for the value that they add to transactions. For sellers, they help to negotiate a higher selling price. For buyers, they help to negotiate a lower selling price. This is in addition to their other tasks, such as marketing and paperwork. Having an experienced real estate agent handle your transaction can give more peace of mind compared to dealing with it yourself, especially if you’re not knowledgeable about the process.

There’s also no guarantee that you will save money by not using a real estate agent. You might save 2.5% by not using a listing agent and trying to sell your home in Toronto by yourself, but with it comes along all the tasks and responsibilities that a listing agent would normally take care of. If you’re buying a home and looking to represent yourself, sellers aren’t guaranteed to reduce the price by 2.5% just because you’re not working with a buyer's agent either.

Have you ever wondered how much real estate agents make in Toronto? Toronto agents have to split their commissions with their real estate brokerages, which means that they don’t get to keep the entire amount that you pay them. Costs of services that they provide, such as professional photography or perhaps staging, might also be covered by their commission depending on your agreement. The median income of an Ontario real estate agent is $45,586, but Toronto real estate agents have a median income of $44,360. That's lower than what agents make in Hamilton and Ottawa.

Things to Look For in a Toronto Real Estate Agent

When trying to find a real estate agent in Toronto, the main things to consider are an agent’s experience, reviews, and compatibility. There are over 62,000 real estate agents in Toronto, so finding the right agent for you can involve some research and some effort. Luckily, WOWA makes it easy to find the best Toronto real estate agents for you by sorting and filtering real estate agents based on these important criteria.

Having an experienced real estate agent can help you navigate Toronto’s highly-competitive real estate market. Experience boils down to an agent’s years of experience, knowledge of your local market, and experience with working with your property type.

An agent’s experience can be measured through their number of years that they have been actively working as a real estate agent. For example, if you are looking for a seasoned professional, you might decide to stay clear of agents with less than five years of experience.

Local knowledge of the area is also related to experience. Even if they live in the area and know the area well from a living point-of-view, they might not necessarily know the area well from a real estate perspective. How well do they know the area when looking at buying or selling houses? An easy way to measure this is to see how many transactions that they have completed in a certain neighbourhood or area. This can be further narrowed down by seeing how many recent transactions in the past 12 months that they have completed. Housing markets can change, so having fresh experience from recent transactions can be more useful than transactions conducted years ago.

Working with an agent that is familiar with your property type might also be a better idea than working with someone who isn’t. For example, if you are looking to buy a condo downtown, it might be better to work with an agent that has experience with condos rather than an agent that exclusively deals with detached homes. Having an agent that is aligned with your property type can make them more familiar with the quirks that come with buying and selling that type of property. For example, a condo buyer might need to be informed about the condo board’s financials, which is something that a detached home owner wouldn’t need to worry about.

When judging a Toronto real estate agent based on experience, you will be looking at how much experience they have, where their experience is, and how relevant their experience will be.

You can rank local Toronto real estate agents on WOWA by their number of reviews and by the average rating of reviews. Reviews are how you will be judging agents based on their past performance and client’s experiences. If an agent has plenty of experience but clients are giving an agent mainly negative reviews, it might suggest that the agent isn’t so great after all. One way to get unbiased reviews is to directly ask past clients of an agent, such as by asking the agent’s most recent clients. This makes it so that the agent can’t just pick and choose clients that are more likely to give glowing reviews.

You should also look at reviews from a variety of sources and not just look at one source. Real estate agent reviews in the Toronto area can include Google Reviews, Yelp, and on platforms like WOWA. This way, you will be more likely to see the fuller picture. Something to look out for is the type of clients that are giving reviews. If you’re looking to sell your home, then reviews from previous sellers can be more relevant than looking at reviews from home buyers.

A big part of the real estate experience is your relationship with your real estate agent. Compatibility and chemistry are things to look for, along with trust and honesty. This can lead into how you will communicate with your agent. Do you prefer to meet in person? Or maybe you would like to email or to text? The time of day that the agent communicates with you can also be important. If you’re a night owl, you might appreciate having an agent that also has late working hours. Having a compatible line of communication is important, as any mismatch can mean timings can be off and delays can leave money on the table. A part of this can involve interviewing multiple real estate agents before choosing the best one that matches your needs.

How Are Toronto Real Estate Agents Licensed?

Yes, real estate agents in Toronto are licensed provincially by the Real Estate Council of Ontario. Toronto real estate agents will be licensed as a registered salesperson. In order to become a real estate agent in Toronto, the Real Estate Salesperson Program at Humber College will need to be completed. The program costs $4,160.

Working with a licensed Toronto real estate agent is important, since their license signifies that they have at least the basic education and knowledge to complete your real estate transaction. Being licensed also protects you with consumer deposit insurance provided by the Real Estate Council of Ontario.

Toronto Real Estate Terms

Buyers Agent: A real estate agent that works for a home buyer

Listing Agent: A real estate agent that works for a home seller

Agreement of Purchase and Sale: An offer documentthat is used when buying a home in Toronto

Land Transfer Tax: This is a tax paid by the home buyer that is based on the property’s purchase price

Condo Fees: Also called maintenance fees, these are monthly fees that Toronto condo owners will need to pay based on their unit’s size and if they have parking or lockers

Pre-Construction: The most common is pre-construction condos in Toronto, in which buyers purchase a condo before it is ready to move in

Property Tax: Toronto property tax is based on your home’s assessed value

Seller’s Market: This is when there isn’t enough supply of houses compared to demand from buyers, which means it favours sellers

Buyer’s Market: This is when there is too much supply of houses compared to demand from buyers, which means it favours buyers

Commission: Commission is paid by the seller of the home, and is usually around 5% in Toronto

Appraisal: A home appraisal is done by a professional home appraiser to determine your home’s value

What’s the difference between a Toronto listing agent and a Toronto buyer’s agent?

If you’re working with a Toronto real estate agent to sell your home, your agent is working as a listing agent. They will help you list your home and get it sold. If you’re looking to buy a home, a buyer’s agent will help find you a home and make offers. Did you know that a real estate agent can be both a listing agent and a buyer’s agent for the same home transaction in Toronto? Multiple representation, also known as dual agency, is allowed in Toronto. This means that with the consent of all parties in the transaction, a single real estate agent can represent both the home seller and the home buyer.

How can I contact real estate agents in Toronto?

Real estate agents will give clients and customers many different ways to get in touch with them. You can contact your real estate agent over the phone, by sending emails, through text messages, or even through social media platforms. You can also meet with your real estate agent in-person for regular meetings. Some online platforms, such as WOWA, let you directly message top real estate agents for free!

What’s a buyer representation agreement?

Buyer representation agreements, or BRAs, are used by real estate agents and brokerages to have it in writing that you are a client of them. Otherwise, if you do not sign on as a client with them, then you are considered to be a customer. BRAs have the ability to bind you to working with that real estate agent or brokerage for a certain period of time, but being a client means that the agent or brokerage now has more responsibilities regarding your best interests. BRAs can also help prevent buyers from using multiple real estate agents, considering the fact that agents are only compensated if you complete a transaction with them.

What are cash back rebates offered by Toronto agents?

Some real estate agents in Toronto offer cash back and rebates to their clients. For example, a discount buyer’s agent might give a portion of their commission to the home buyer once the sale is completed. On the other hand, a listing agent might charge a discounted commission to the home seller, such as a discounted rate of just 1%. Low real estate commission agents can save you money through lower commissions while still providing services that a regular agent would.

Toronto Real Estate Tools for Buyers and Sellers