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Foreign buyers play a limited part in condo sales activity in the Greater Toronto Area but investors play a key role in the market according to a new report from Urbanation.

It found that just 5 per cent of sales that have occurred within projects currently in active development across the GTA were to foreign buyers while 52 per cent were to domestic investors.

“The results of this very important survey show a rather limited role of foreign buyers in the GTA new condo market and a very significant overall share of investors,” said Shaun Hildebrand, Urbanation’s Senior Vice President.

In projects where foreign buyers are involved, their share ranges from 1 to 25 per cent of units with domestic investors picking up between 5 and 90 per cent.

Urbanation’s figures show that there were 6,677 new condo sales in the third quarter of 2016, up 73 per cent from the same period of 2015. Total unsold inventory was down by 33 per cent to 11,485 representing 5.2 months of supply.

“The pace of new condo development has fallen well below the level of demand this year. Given the low prevailing amount of available supply and diverse range of buyers, the recent mortgage insurance rule changes are anticipated to have a somewhat limited effect on market conditions for condos in the near term,” said Hildebrand.