real estate market update

Vancouver Real Estate 2019

Looking back at the 2019 Vancouver Real Estate Market

Home sales decline below long-term averages in 2019 despite increased demand to end the year

The Metro Vancouver housing market experienced below average sales activity and moderate price declines in 2019.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that sales of detached, attached and apartment homes reached 25,351 in 2019, a three per cent increase from the 24,619 sales recorded in 2018, and a 29.6 per cent decrease over the 35,993 residential sales in 2017.

Last year’s sales total was 20.3 per cent below the region’s 10-year sales average.

“We didn’t see typical seasonal patterns in 2019. Home buyer demand was quieter in the normally busy spring season and it picked up in the second half of the year,” Ashley Smith, REBGV president said. “In terms of home values, prices dipped between two and four per cent across the region last year depending on property type.”

Home listings on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in Metro Vancouver reached 51,918 in 2019. This is a 3.2 per cent decrease compared to the 53,614 homes listed in 2018 and a five percent decrease compared to the 54,655 homes listed in 2017.

Last year’s listings total was 7.6 per cent below the 10-year average.

“Home buyer confidence was a factor throughout the year. In the first quarter, many prospective buyers were in a holding pattern, waiting to see how prices would react to the mortgage stress test, new taxes, and other policy changes,” Smith said. “Confidence started to return in the summer, and we saw above average sales in the final quarter of 2019.”

The MLS® HPI composite benchmark price for all residential properties in Metro Vancouver ends the year at $1,001,000. This is a 3.1 per cent decrease compared to December 2018.

The benchmark price of apartments decreased 2.7 per cent in the region last year. Townhomes decreased 2.4 per cent and detached homes decreased four per cent.

Source: REBGV-Stats-Pkg-December-2019

Luxury Real Estate Sales Declined in Vancouver, But Rise in Toronto

In the first half of 2019, luxury real estate sales flourished in Montreal with property sales jumping over $4 million by triple digits, but continued to decline in Vancouver, a fresh study says.

“Canada’s top-tier real estate markets veered in separate directions,” read a report released Wednesday by Sotheby’s International Realty Canada, which tracked the number of condominiums, townhouses and detached homes sold for over $1 million and $4 million in major Canadian cities.

The agency has previously forecast Montreal as an emerging hot stop set to make new records.
In the first half of 2019, property sales in excess of $1 million jumped five percent relative to the same period last year..

Sales of properties over $4 million soared 267 per cent with 11 properties sold. Three such properties were sold in the first half of 2018.

Experts from the agency observed an rise in global buyers — a group that, according to the study, involves new Canadians, permanent residents, and investors as overseas buyers ‘ taxes in Toronto and Vancouver redirected global buyers to Montreal.However, the group still composes “a small percentage of overall top-tier sales activity” in the city, it said.

Meanwhile, in Vancouver’s formerly heated housing market, luxury property sales continued to drop due to fallout from government intervention.

The market continued to bear the burden of tightened mortgage rules, multiple governmental policies and taxes, and hesitant sellers and fickle buyers lacking motivation to commit to transactions,” the report read.
Homes sold for over $1 million fell 33 per cent to 1,308 properties, while homes sold for more than $4 million fell 34 per cent to 73 homes.

Evolving conditions in Vancouver real estate have created opportunities for prospective top-tier real estate buyers to consider housing options previously out of reach,” the report said, adding some potential buyers who were considering condos priced at more than $1 million have likely now shifted their focus to attached or detached homes instead.

Sales of condos over $1 million fell 51 per cent in the first six months of this year from 708 condos sold between January and June 2018 to 349 in the same six months of 2019.

“The continued adjustment of housing prices is expected to renew interest and activity in the future,” the report noted of Vancouver’s single family homes priced over $1 million.

sources:URL link”https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/luxury-home-sales-on-the-rise-in-toronto-1.4501772″