Homes purchased in Scarborough prior to COVID-19 have appreciated the most (25%), while homes in Uptown (5%), Midtown (7%), and Downtown (8%) have appreciated the least.

Today, tech-enabled real estate brokerage, Properly, reveals how much homes across Toronto purchased in the six months prior to COVID-19 have appreciated in value. Using its proprietary, AI-powered home value calculator, Instant Estimate, the analysis shows that housing trends seen throughout the GTA in the past year — with homeowners fleeing the city and flocking to the more spacious suburbs — are playing out in a similar way in the city of Toronto itself. 

Real estate is hot everywhere in Toronto, but with downtown dwellers looking for more space and more affordability, home values in areas on the outskirts of the city have seen the greatest appreciation. Comparing the purchase price of homes bought in the lead up to the pandemic to their Properly Instant Estimate today, properties purchased in Scarborough have jumped in value by a whopping 25 per cent, followed by York (21%) and Etobicoke (19%). On the other hand, home values in Toronto’s Uptown have seen the lowest appreciation at just five per cent, followed by Midtown (7%) and Downtown (8%).

“There has been increased conversation around the skyrocketing homes prices in Toronto,” said Anshul Ruparell, Co-founder and CEO of Properly. “But what’s happening is actually the reverse of what we usually assume: that people want to be close to downtown. Old Toronto is seeing the overall lowest appreciation within the City of Toronto. It remains to be seen whether this shift away from the core will continue, but the Instant Estimate allows all homeowners in the GTA to easily track the value of their home in real time.”

In order to arrive at these data points, Properly compared the selling prices of homes bought in the six month period prior to COVID-19 (September 2019 - February 2020) to their current Instant Estimate value (May 2021). Here is a breakdown of home values by area, including the neighbourhoods in each of these areas with the highest and lowest appreciation.

*See a full breakdown of home values across all Toronto neighbourhoods here.

Properly’s Instant Estimate is Canada’s most accurate free home value calculator. It uses AI technology to calculate individual home values, factoring in historical sold data, proximity to services, property details, and other economic factors. Instant Estimate helps homeowners determine the best time to sell, set their buying budget, and track their net worth with a real-time valuation of their biggest asset: their home. Since launching last month, Instant Estimates have been checked nearly 400,000 times to help people determine the real-time value of their home.  

Curious about your home value? Use Properly’s Instant Estimate to get a real-time valuation: https://www.properly.ca/instant-estimate/

About The Data

Properly compared sold prices of homes bought in each of the 10 areas in Toronto (aggregates of TRREB municipalities) in the 6 months prior to the pandemic (September 2019 - February 2020) to their current Instant Estimate selling price on May 1, 2021. For each individual home, Properly calculated the difference in sold price to the home’s estimated market value in April using its AI-driven Instant Estimate, then provided an average by area and municipality. Homes over $3.5M were removed. Municipalities with under 25 sold properties during the September 2019 - February 2020 period were also removed. Properly Instant Estimate accuracy: R-squared: ~92%, MAPE ~7%.