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Ottawa home sales jump 12% in August, OREB says

September 8, 2025

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Ottawa’s resale housing market continued to enjoy a balmy summer in August as home sales jumped more than 10 per cent compared with the previous year, reflecting “renewed momentum” as the traditionally busy fall season approaches, the city’s real estate board says. A total of 1,236 properties changed hands in the capital last month, up 12.1 per cent from August 2024, the Ottawa Real Estate Board says. It marked the most transactions for the month since 2021. The average sale price in Ottawa last month was $686,536, a 3.6 per cent increase from last year, while the composite benchmark price – meant to represent the average home – rose 1.5 per cent to $633,000. “August was an active month for Ottawa’s housing market, with overall prices trending upward and sales activity stronger than in recent years as the summer season winds down,” OREB president-elect Tami Eades, a broker at Royal LePage Team Realty, said in a statement. “While we continue to see different price movements across segments, the broader picture points to renewed momentum in the Ottawa region as buyers and sellers alike re-engage ahead of the fall market. “Ottawa’s market reflects balanced conditions, though we are mindful of broader economic factors – such as federal employment trends and U.S. trade policies – that could affect our market in the months ahead.” The benchmark price for single-family homes was $700,100, a 1.5 per cent increase from a year earlier, while the benchmark price for a townhouse/row unit jumped 8.3 per cent to $466,200. However, Ottawa’s condo market remained “comparatively soft” last month, OREB said, with the benchmark price falling 1.1 per cent to $412,300. So far in 2025, a total of 9,936 homes have changed hands, a 4.1 per cent increase from the same period a year ago. The average price of all homes sold since the start of the year is $700,828, up three per cent from the first eight months of 2024. OREB said 2,121 new residential listings were added to the city’s inventory last month, an 8.6 per cent increase compared with August 2024. There were 3,971 active listings at the end of the month, up 13.3 per cent from last year and 37 per cent above the five-year average for August. “This increase in inventory, while worth monitoring, is not currently a cause for concern,” the board said in a statement,” adding Ottawa’s real estate market follows “well-established seasonal cycles, with late summer typically bringing a build-up of available listings ahead of the busy fall market.” The board said the sales-to-new-listings ratio of 58.3 per cent and 3.2 months of inventory “indicate that demand is keeping pace with supply.”