Our Real Estate Notary Recaps The Commercial And Residential Markets In Vancouver
Our real estate notaries are dedicated to helping our clients buy and sell property throughout the year. 2019 has been a year of change for the Vancouver residential and commercial real estate markets. Vancouver real estate market, for commercial and residential markets alike.
Take a look at a few of the trends that have shaped the recent quarter in real estate history.
Residential Real Estate Market
With Vancouver housing prices at their lowest in 27 months, housing sales in the Vancouver region are rising.
Sales of Condos and Townhouses
Compared to the same month in 2018, we’ve observed a 15.7% increase in the sale of detached homes, condos and townhouses. Even so, a total of 2,231 sales in August 2019 is still 9.2% below the 10-year average for August. This means that while the market is not as slow as 2018, we have not been experiencing the same quantity of transactions observed in previous years.
Price of Condos and Detached Properties
In 2019, the benchmark price of a condo fell to $654,000, a 7.4% reduction from 2018.
The benchmark price of detached properties also dropped, with a 9.8% decrease to $1,4006,700 compared to the same month in the previous year.
Even within the Vancouver real estate housing market, we have noticed a large difference between townhouses and condos when compared to luxury homes.
In fact, Vancouver’s luxury home market has been on a downward trend for some time!
Luxury Residential Real Estate Market
Luxury homes are defined as the top 5% of the housing market in terms of price. Vancouver has been reported as the world’s weakest in a list of the top 46, with the price of luxury homes further falling by 13.6% in 2018.
Vancouver used to be at the top of the ranking, but started to experience a decline in 2016 when the foreign buyer tax was introduced at 15% and later bumped up to 20%. This tax was introduced alongside another new addition. – the empty homes tax, which charges 1% of a home’s value each year that it is unoccupied.
Commercial Real Estate Market In Vancouver
While commercial real estate sales have slowed down somewhat, we are still experiencing some of the highest numbers of commercial real estate sales since 2009.
There were 202 commercial property deals in BC in 2018 for a total of $6.4 billion, down from 232 deals in 2017 (total of $7.5 billion).
In terms of the types of commercial properties that have been observing the most growth, here’s what the deals have consisted of in the past year:
Retail – 45% of year-end sales ($2.9 billion)
Office – 37% of year-end sales ($2.4 billion)
Industrial – 18% of year-end sales ($1.2 billion)
What does this mean?
Whether you are a commercial business or a potential home buyer, these trends allude to less upward pressure on prices and more potential purchase opportunities. However, whether or not these trends will last is still up for speculation.
The Canadian Real Estate Association has cast doubts that a new speculation and vacancy tax will help increase the supply of housing over the long term. This essentially implies that a foreign buyer tax is unlikely to derail a housing rebound in the market.
In fact, a pick-up in activity prompted the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) to declare in July that “the Canadian housing market correction is over and recovery is on.”
This statement has been backed by Dave McKay, CEO of RBC, during a third-quarter conference call. These conditions have been noted particularly in the Toronto and Montreal markets, but the Vancouver market is still anyone’s guess.
If you’re looking for a real estate notary to help you with a transaction, please contact our notaries public at Morris Notary. We have helped hundreds of property owners throughout the Lower Mainland, and we would be honoured to help you with your transaction.
