Past the GTA's $1 Million Average, Two Thirds of Condos Sold Under $600,000

In September, 1,316 condominium apartments changed hands across the Greater Toronto Area. The single most common price for those units fell somewhere between $400,000 and $499,999, a band that alone accounted for 390 sales. That figure rarely makes the headlines. The one that does is $1,006,409, the GTA's average price across all housing types for the month, and it shapes how a lot of people think about what owning in this region costs.

What the average is actually measuring

An average is a simple calculation. You add up every sale price and divide by the number of sales. Detached houses, semis, townhouses and condos all go into the same pot.

The trouble is that these are different products bought by different people with different budgets. When a large number of higher-priced houses sit in the same calculation as smaller apartments, the result lands at a figure that may describe very few actual transactions. The $1,006,409 number tells you something real about total dollar volume in the market. It tells you much less about what a first condo, a downsizing move or a rental unit costs.

For anyone working out whether ownership is within reach, or whether helping an adult child buy is realistic, the more useful question is narrower. What did the type of home you're considering actually sell for?

Where the condo sales landed

Here is how September's 1,316 condo apartment sales broke down:

• 594 units sold below $500,000, or 45.1% of all condo sales.
• 893 units sold below $600,000, or 67.9% of all condo sales.
• 390 units sold in the $400,000 to $499,999 band, the largest single price range.

A few more figures fall out of those numbers. Roughly 204 units sold for less than $400,000. About 299 sold between $500,000 and $599,999. That leaves around 423 sales at $600,000 or more, which is close to a third of the month's condo activity.

So the bulk of the market sits in a fairly tight range. More than two of every three condo buyers in September paid under $600,000, and the busiest price point was well under half the all-housing average.

It also helps to see the GTA figure next to the country as a whole. CREA reported a national average sale price of $668,219 for August 2026, up 0.6% from a year earlier. A typical GTA condo buyer in September was paying less than that national average, even though the region's all-housing figure sits far above it.

What the bands are useful for

Price bands are useful because they show where the volume is. A buyer looking at a $450,000 unit is shopping in the busiest part of the condo market, with the most comparable sales to measure an offer against. That makes it easier to judge whether a listing is priced in line with what similar units have recently fetched.

For a parent with good home equity thinking about a gift or a co-signed purchase for a child, the same breakdown changes the size of the problem. Planning around a $1 million figure and planning around a $450,000 unit lead to very different conversations about down payments, carrying costs and how much equity to draw on, if any. The bands don't say whether a particular unit is a good purchase. Building quality, condo fees and the reserve fund still matter, and those vary widely from one building to the next.

What the September numbers show is that the GTA market is several markets, each with its own typical price. The $1,006,409 average is accurate arithmetic. It just answers a broader question than most buyers are asking, and the 390 sales in the $400,000 band are closer to the answer many of them need.