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Canada’s priciest housing markets saw their worst year for sales in at least a decade as higher borrowing costs and stricter mortgage rules hit home.

Sales in the Toronto region fell 16 per cent to 77,426 transactions in 2018 while the average price fell 4.3 per cent to $787,300, the Toronto Real Estate Board reported Friday. That’s the worst year for sales in Canada’s biggest city since 2008. In Vancouver, full-year sales fell 32 per cent to 24,619, the lowest since 2000 and 25 per cent below the 10-year average.

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“Higher borrowing costs coupled with the new mortgage stress test certainly prompted some households to temporarily move to the sidelines to reassess their housing options,” Garry Bhaura, president of the Toronto Real Estate Board, said in a statement.

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Sales in both cities took a dive in the first half of 2018 after the federal government imposed tougher qualifying rules for mortgages. Vancouver sales continued to suffer even while Toronto began to recover in the second half, as the British Columbia government introduced more measures to deter speculation.