Toronto agents say first-time buyers are flooding into open houses and dominating offer nights, which is something they haven’t seen happen since the Bank of Canada began to turn up the heat on interest rates.

If the past few months have taught us anything, it’s that Toronto’s housing market doesn’t stay downcast for long. Sales activity began to ramp up in the latter few months of last year, and as of last month, transactions were up a hair shy of 18% on a year-over-year basis.

“Things have definitely picked up, but what’s interesting is the segment of the market that’s picked up, and that’s kind of the under $1.5M price point,” says Toronto realtor Lisa Bednarski. “And I’m talking more about Toronto than the broader GTA, but that tends to be first-time buyers.”

Bednarski, who is an agent with the BREL team, tells STOREYS that first-time buyers are flooding into open houses and dominating offer nights, which is something she hasn’t seen happen since the Bank of Canada began to turn up the heat on interest rates in the middle of 2022.

She recently had a listing on Symington Avenue, which she priced at a million dollars. It got some 6,000 views on Realtor.ca (which Bednarski notes is “off the charts”) and had over 100 showings. Ninety-three people attended the open house.

“All were first-time buyers. And we got 23 offers on offer night,” she says. “Buyers are gambling that interest rates are going to go down in the summer, which is not a bad gamble. So they want to, you know, date the rate and marry the house.”