Toronto Condo Pipeline Plagued By Scuttled Plans

Toronto’s once-frenzied preconstruction condo market is unraveling.

At least a dozen condo projects across the city have been canceled, converted to rentals or placed in receivership since the start of 2024, the Toronto Star reported. The city has for years was defined by construction cranes and investor-fueled demand, but rising costs and plummeting sales have now pushed developers to the brink.

Toronto’s seen a fivefold increase in the number of condos canceled from 2022 to 2025, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.

The factors are familiar: soaring construction and materials costs, high interest rates, labor shortages and the end of pandemic-era borrowing. Total condo sales in Toronto have dropped 75 percent since 2022, and resale prices are down 13 percent, data from Urbanation shows. But preconstruction has been hit hardest, with months of unsold inventory piling up and many developers unable to hit the 70 percent presale threshold required for financing.

In some cases, developers are walking away from active projects, leaving vacant lots, returning buyer deposits and, in a few high-profile cases, entering court-ordered receivership.

At the stalled Grand Central Mimico project near the GO station, at least four sites linked to developer Vandyk are now under court supervision. Others, like The View Beach Residences, have been sold off entirely.

The damage suggests even more projects are collapsing behind the scenes. Industry insiders describe a sharp rise in calls from developers looking to offload land or walk away from obligations.

Some developers are managing to salvage projects by converting them to rentals. At Centricity Condos, a 53-story tower in the Church-Yonge corridor, Graywood Developments retooled the floor plans and amenities to appeal to renters, scrapping condo plans altogether and redesigning the space to “sell the dream” on every leasing tour.

But many others won’t be able to pivot. The long-term impact could be a housing supply crunch in 2028 and beyond, as today’s cancelled or stalled projects represent thousands of units that may now never materialize.

— Judah Duke