If Toronto's real estate market can be looked at as a campfire, the COVID-19 pandemic is a wet blanket — one that brought home sales to a trickle this spring — but is burning up fast as government restrictions lift.

Pent-up demand among buyers is now further acting as gasoline, fuelling the fire and pushing sales numbers to record new heights.

The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) announced Thursday morning that GTA realtors had reported a whopping 11,081 sales in July 0f 2020.

This marks a 29.5 per cent increase over July of 2019, and a nearly 50 per cent rise in sales over the previous month.

It also represents a new home sales record for the month of July, according to TRREB.

"Sales activity was extremely strong for the first full month of summer. Normally we would see sales dip in July relative to June as more households take vacations, especially with children out of school," said TRREB president Lisa Patel in a release announcing July's figures.

"This year, however, was different with pent-up demand from the COVID-19-related lull in April and May being satisfied in the summer, as economic recovery takes firmer hold, including the Stage 3 re-opening."

The $943K GTA average price for July is also a new record (for any month, not just July), surpassing last month's $931K. I suspect a lot of that is due to higher percent of lowrise in the mix.

But the composite HPI is also ⬆️ from $863,400 in June to $880,400. /2 pic.twitter.com/gtbYdYZXVX

— Scott Ingram CPA, CA (@areacode416) August 6, 2020

Patel noted that the increase in transactions and listings may also be due, in part, to fewer people travelling.

Prices, which only rose throughout the pandemic slowdown period, continued to rise in July as well, up 5.5 per cent over June of 2020.

With an overall average selling price of $943,710 in July, home prices in the GTA are up 16.9 per cent, year-over-year.

"Price growth was strongest for low-rise home types, notably within the City of Toronto," reads the TRREB report. "Despite more balanced market conditions in the condominium apartment market segment, year-over-year price growth remained in the high single digits."

Much of this growth can be attributed to fewer listings, according to TRREB, meaning increased buyer competition. The more-expensive detached market segment is also seeing more activity lately, bringing up the overall average selling price.

Within the City of Toronto, specifically, home prices shot up approximately 21 per cent between July of 2019 and 2020, from $840,360 to a staggering $1,017,320.