Surprise, surprise: the price of homes in Toronto is set to keep on increasing, if the latest expert predictions are at all accurate.

It was this year that Toronto was deemed less affordable than London and San Francisco, that we were named the only North American city on the verge of a housing bubble, and that single-family houses here hit the highest price they've been in two decades, with detached homes averaging more than $1.5 million.

And the latest Market Survey Forecast from Royal LePage says this all points to a trend that will be continuing in 2021, ostensibly aided by the forthcoming COVID-19 vaccines and with them, hopefully, a return to a life a bit closer to the pre-pandemic norm.

"Housing demand exceeded expectations in the second half of 2020. The supply of homes available for sale failed to keep pace, driving home prices higher and pushing unmet buyer demand into the new year," the report, released on Monday, reads.

"The leading indicators we analyze are pointing to a market that favours property sellers in the all-important spring of 2021."

Other industry insiders have predicted the same in recent weeks, with low inventory and high demand slated to be a steady pattern in the city for the foreseeable future, as far as housing is concerned.

As a result, the aggregate price of a home in the GTA is anticipated to spike another 5.75 per cent by the end of next year.

For Canada overall, this figure is expected to rise 5.5 per cent to an average price of $746,100 — significantly cheaper than residential properties in the Toronto market, of course, where the average price hovered around $955,615 last month, even with the softened condo market.

If the fact that the health crisis has had surprisingly little impact on the city's real estate landscape this year is any indication, these projections do not seem unrealistic. 

If you're priced out of being able to buy even one of the microcondos that are flooding the market in the coming months, there's always the option of renting, as prices there are actually lowering for once.