Selling in a saturated condo market

Article content

‘Strategic presentation and sharp pricing are everything’

When stager Lucie Brand visited a two-bedroom rental unit near the Church-Wellesley Village, she knew it needed some TLC if it was going to sell in Toronto’s saturated condo market.

Recommended Videos

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Selling in a saturated condo market Back to video

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video

“I told the realtor I wasn’t even prepared to stage it unless I knew that the owners were going to do at least the bare minimum of making it a marketable unit and it was going to be priced aggressively,” says Brand, business manager and owner of Toronto Condo Staging and Design, a condo and housing staging company.

Real estate broker Elizabeth Machula of Right at Home Realty agreed with Brand. “Selling in today’s market means standing out, even when your listing isn’t turnkey,” she says, pointing to the unit at 77 Maitland Place.

“We were up against serious competition, including fully-renovated units in the same complex. This condo didn’t have ensuite laundry (though it had potential for one), and the kitchen and bathrooms were still original from the 1980s. But rather than focus on what we couldn’t change, we leaned into what we could.

“We had the entire unit professionally painted – ceilings, doors, trim – and replaced old electrical faceplates with sleek, modern ones. Missing closet doors were installed and we brought in a professional stager to reframe the space. The goal? Help buyers look past the dated finishes and see the layout, the light and the long-term potential.

“We also priced it smart – listed at $599,000, well below the $629,000 ask of a fully-renovated suite in the same complex. In a buyer’s market flooded with inventory, strategic presentation and sharp pricing are everything. Staging isn’t just about looking good; it’s about guiding buyers’ perception. You can’t fake luxury, but you can spotlight opportunity. And that’s exactly what we did.”

The owners received a full price offer just nine days after the condo was listed in July, Machula reports.

UPS AND DOWNS

Brand has seen ups and downs in the market since setting up her staging business almost 25 years ago. “I have never seen this many units on the market before and it just seems like the buyers have dried up,” she says.

As interest rates sunk to historic lows during the pandemic, the already hot condo market in Toronto exploded. Today’s market is decidedly different, with condo buyers benefitting from more choice in the Greater Toronto Area marketplace in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period last year, the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) reports.

There were 14,544 new listings – up by 25.2 per cent year-over-year – but just 3,794 sales – down 21.7 per cent compared to the first quarter of 2024. Increased choice provided buyers with more negotiating power on price. The average selling price was $680,146 – a 2.2 per cent decrease compared to the average of $695,555 in the same period last year.

Because the condominium rental market has also been well-supplied over the past year, fewer renters have entertained the move to home ownership. Instead, renters have taken advantage of increased inventory to negotiate more competitive monthly rents, TRREB notes. “The expectation is that we will see further rate cuts in 2025. Once economic confidence improves in the months ahead, the demand for condominium apartments should increase as well,” it says.

‘ADJUST EXPECTATIONS’

“A reality right now is that sellers are really having to adjust their expectations,” Brand says. “The people who purchased 10 or 15 years ago are the ones who don’t have a problem if they drop $50,000 in order to sell it because they’re still making money from when they purchased their condo for $275,000 or $300,000. But anybody who’s purchased in the last five years is really struggling.”

For the first time, Brand has seen owners giving up on selling their unit and staging it for rental instead. Renting until the storm passes can be good advice for some, says Mike Carpino, a real estate agent with IPro Realty.

“We’re inundated with inventory right now,” which has “paralyzed” prospective buyers because they’re seeing so much of the same thing, he says. A unit must have the best price, potentially the best view, parking and a locker plus staging for many of his clients to even consider making an offer.

Carpino encourages those thinking about listing to consider when they bought their condo. If it was sometime around 2021, they might break even on the sale but could end up losing money if they need to break their mortgage and incur penalties. They also need to factor land transfer taxes and realtor commissions into the equation.

SIDEBAR:

Professional stager Lucie Brand’s advice to condo owners thinking of selling is to “make your unit stand out among the other hundred units for sale within a mile radius. Upgrade your kitchen, upgrade your bathrooms, change your light fixtures, maybe create an accent wall.

“Think creatively and be priced appropriately,” she says, pointing to condo owners who have painted kitchen and bathroom cabinetry and upgraded countertops and hardware in lieu of undertaking a full renovation.