GTA home listings are drying up faster than sales. Here’s what it means for buyers and sellers

While slow home sales in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) have been making headlines over the last year, one local expert says buyers and sellers should be watching out for the even larger drops in new listings this fall. 

Over the last months, falling home sales and prices have been a constant topic across the GTA’s real estate industry. 

Earlier this month, the Toronto Region Real Estate Board (TRREB) reported a considerable dip in sales year-over-year in August, recording only 5,057 home sales through its MLS system throughout that month, which is 2.1 per cent lower than last year at the same time. 

The findings come after the region recorded a relatively slow year in real estate, with several year-over-year drops in sales and average prices even dropping below $1 million twice in 2026, after remaining above that for over five years. 

Toronto-based realtor Will Doyle tells Now Toronto that sales in fact have been up-and-down over the last year, with some months recording slight growths while others marked significant drops. Overall, he said the market appeared to have stayed flat during this period. 

According to him, a series of different factors might be contributing to the slower market, including consumers’ economic uncertainty and lack of confidence in the market amid rising cost-of-living, U.S. tariffs, and a global trade shift. 

“Things like tariffs and trade wars tend to put breaks on people’s plans. It’s a lot. The more uncertainty there is in the economy and in the real estate market, it tends to slow things down,” he explained.

“I feel like more people are getting off the fence, or at least thinking now or maybe next year is the right time to buy if they’ve been thinking about it. But there’s a much bigger swing,” he added. 

Listings declining even faster

Even though sales and prices appeared to have been dominating real estate headlines during this period, Doyle said the decline in listings is also attention-grabbing. 

While sales fell by 2.1 per cent in August compared to last year, new listings dropped by 14.1 per cent year-over-year, with only 12,075 new properties recorded in the MLS system, while active listings also fell by 13 per cent, according to the TRREB. 

This is also not the first time listings have dropped over the past year. According to Doyle, they have been dropping every month of 2026. In July, the number of new listings had dropped by 17.8 per cent year-over-year, after having already dropped by 12.9 per cent in June and by 18.9 per cent in May. 

Similar to the drop in sales, the significantly declining listings also signal a combination of factors, including the lack of confidence in the market, and how sellers are responding to it. 

“Some sellers are just giving up and planning to not sell their house, or a lot of them are taking it off and renting the property instead,” Doyle said. 

“One of the bigger factors is that sellers are becoming more realistic on the price that they’re expecting to sell for. For a lot of years as prices have been trending down, there’s been a lot of sellers who’ve tried to sell for more than the house is worth in the current market. But I find more sellers are pricing their properties for what it’s actually worth today.” 

What does this mean for buyers?

With demand dropping over the last year, and several properties sitting in the system, the market has appeared to take a turn on buyers’ side, allowing them to best choose and negotiate prices and terms. 

But with less and less listings available, do buyers still have the advantage? 

Doyle explained that to determine whether it’s a buyer’s market or seller’s market, experts look at months of inventory and compare the number of listings to sales to determine how long it would take to sell off a certain number of active listings. 

While this analysis has indicated a more balanced market so far this year, Doyle said that if listings keep dropping faster than sales, the market might tighten and push it towards sellers’ side. 

“We’re not in a seller’s market yet, but… the less and less listings we’re getting, we’re getting closer and closer to being back in a seller’s market territory. So this trend has to continue to happen for us to get there, and then price appreciation will eventually follow, assuming that the trend continues.” 

In addition to potential price increases and less room for negotiation, Doyle said less listings also mean less options for buyers, with some already reporting having difficulty finding their ideal choices. 

“The more listings, the better it is for buyers. For all the buyer clients I’m working with, a common feedback I get is there’s a bunch of listings, but there’s very few good listings,” he added. 

What does this mean for sellers?

While less options might not be good news for buyers, it can be positive for sellers. 

With buyers having less great options to choose from, many sellers might find less and less competition. In addition, if the market does move in favour of sellers, they could also find an opportunity to increase prices and have stronger bargaining power. 

 “If you’re doing everything that you should be, like marketing the property right, and more importantly, pricing it right, you have less other sellers that you’re competing against, which makes it easier on the selling side,” Doyle said. 

With the fall market quickly approaching, the realtor said it might be hard to determine whether sales and listings will pick up anytime soon.