A small uptick in home sales in September compared to August did little to move the needle on a slower year in the market. The Ottawa Real Estate Board (OREB) says 1,010 homes were sold through the MLS system in September, up slightly from 1,002 homes sold in August, marking a rare September increase in sales. The figure, however, is 6.6 per cent lower than the number of sales recorded in September 2025, the OREB says. New listings rose more sharply than usual in September, the OREB said. There were 2,927 new listings in September, up 3 per cent from a year earlier and up 38.1 per cent from August. “New listings have declined in both October and November in each of the past 10 years, so the coming months will show whether September’s influx of listings recedes with the usual seasonal pattern or keeps inventory elevated for longer,” the OREB said in a news release. All three categories of property types saw lower year-over-year sales in September, with apartments leading the drop-off, accounting for more than half of the net year-over-year decrease in city-wide sales. Single-family home sales declined 4.6 per cent to 535 transactions, while townhouse sales fell 3.5 per cent to 329 transactions. Apartments sales fell 24.8 per cent to 121 transactions last month. The average residential sale price was $685,640 in September, down 1 per cent from a year earlier. Single-family homes had a benchmark price of $705,100, about the same as last year, while the benchmark price for townhouses was $546,500, down 2.2 per cent year-over-year. The apartment benchmark price in September was $380,800, down 6.1 per cent from a year ago. According to the OREB, 10,288 homes have sold in Ottawa so far this year, down 6.9 per cent from the same period last year.
