Home sales up 19 per cent as prices rise 15.3 per cent – but dramatic rise in growth rate of condo prices is the biggest surprise

Joannah Connolly
Other

Metro Vancouver real estate sales hit another peak in October, with the annual price growth in condos accelerating as demand rises, according to Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) figures released November 3.

Total home sales were up 19.3 per cent annually in October and prices rose 15.3 per cent compared with October 2014. As in September, both these annual growth rates have slowed compared with the scorching spring market earlier this year. However, October saw year-over-year condo price growth surpass the 10 per cent mark.

The October sales figures were also a recovery from slower sales the previous month, up 9 per cent on September 2015.

October’s sales were 36.2 per cent above the 10-year average for the month, which the board’s president said was surprising given the lack of supply.

Darcy McLeod, REBGV president, said, “Home sales are more than one-third above what’s typical for this time of year, yet the supply of homes for sale is the lowest we’ve seen in five years.”

Sales and Listings

Greater Vancouver home sales rose 19.3 per cent to 3,646 units in October, compared with the 3,057 sales of October 2014. This is a 9 per cent increase compared to the 3,345 sales in September 2015.

Broken down by housing type, detached home sales increased 13.1 per cent year over year – a substantial increase but the lowest of the three property types. There were 1,437 single-family home sales in October, compared with the 1,271 sales in October 2014.

Unlike in September, when this honour was reserved for condo-apartments, it was townhomes and other attached properties that saw the biggest annual sales rise in October. The 666 units sold represented a 28.6 per cent increase over the 518 units in October 2014.

Sales of condominium-apartments continue to rise strongly, totalling 1,543 in October, an increase of 21.7 per cent compared with October 2014 and the largest total unit sales of the three property types.

New listings in Metro Vancouver continued to fall year over year, totalling 4,126 in October, an 8 per cent drop compared with the 4,487 new listings reported in October 2014. This was also a 14.9 per cent drop over the previous month’s spike in new listings.

The total number of properties listed for sale on the board’s MLS® at the end of October was 9,569, a 30 per cent decline compared with October 2014 and an 11.4 per cent drop from September 2015.

The board added that this was the lowest active listing total in Metro Vancouver since December 2010.

The sales-to-active-listings ratio in October was 38.1 per cent – far higher than the norm for the region. This is also the eighth consecutive month that this ratio has been above 30 per cent in Metro Vancouver, meaning that the sellers’ market conditions continue to strengthen.

McLeod confirmed, “This activity has created favourable market conditions for anyone considering selling their home today.”

Benchmark Prices

The benchmark price for combined MLS® residential property types in Metro Vancouver continued to set its monthly new record, now at $736,000. This represents a 15.3 increase compared with October 2014.

The price of a detached single-family home in Metro Vancouver increased 20.1 per cent from October 2014 to $1,197,600. This was again the highest annual price growth rate of all the property types, further demonstrating the decreasing supply and increasing demand for these homes.

The benchmark price of a townhome or other attached unit increased 9.3 per cent between October 2014 and 2015 to $526,700.

Condo-apartment benchmark prices increased a surprising 11.4 per cent from October 2014 to $425,800 – this from a property type that has historically had relatively modest annual rises of 4 or 5 per cent. This is likely to reflect both an increase in demand from buyers pushed out of the house market, and the dramatically rising cost of land for new condominium development.

Home prices vary widely throughout the REBGV region. To get a good idea of home prices in a specific location, check the detailed MLS® Home Price Index in the REBGV full statistics package.

© 2015 Real Estate Weekly

Justin da Rosa
Other

The Royal Bank of Canada will no longer limit mortgage size for immigrant buyers in Vancouver.

“We’re seeing a lot of affluent newcomers looking to buy high-purchase price homes,” Christine Shisler, RBC’s director of multicultural markets, told Reuters. “Now we can actually service any mortgage amount.”

Shisler said the bank removed its internal $1.25 million mortgage limit for buyers who have no Canadian credit history in May.

According to Reuters, a case study was released Monday that found two-third of buyers in neighbourhoods around the University of British Columbia had names typical of those from mainland China. 88% of those also had a mortgage.

And the big banks are the ones serving that market.

The mortgages in that study ranged from $1.25 million to over $9 million. They were predominantly backed by HSBC, CIBC, and BMO. For its part, RBC originated 8% of those loans.

The fact that the majority of those properties have mortgages goes against the conventional wisdom that wealthy foreigners are purchasing homes outright.

“It counters a lot of our mythologies, in terms of this idea of people showing up with very large bags of money and paying cash,” Andy Yan, an urban planner and professor at UBC, told Reuters.

And it’s an interesting bit of information on a market segment that has long been debated by industry professionals.

It is unclear just how much foreign money has influenced the housing market in Canada – especially in Vancouver and Toronto.

And while the industry lacks sufficient information, CMHC recently said it is examining ways to better track foreign influence.

“Currently there is no perfect source of information on the level of foreign investment in the housing market,” chief economist Bob Dugan The Canadian Press in late September. “CMHC has undertaken steps to address this data gap.

“As a result, we know a lot more about it today than we did a year ago and are continuing our program of work to determine the level of foreign investment in Canadian residential real estate.”   

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Jennifer Paterson
Other

The average vacancy rate in Canada’s largest cities is on the rise, according to new data from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

Its fall Rental Market Survey, published today, found that the average vacancy rate in purpose-built rental apartments increased to 3.3 per cent in October 2015, up from 2.8 per cent in October 2014.

“The rise in the national vacancy rate was due to lower net migration in regions most affected by low oil prices as well as an increase in the supply of purpose-built rental apartment units,” said Bob Dugan, chief economist at CMHC.

But while vacancy rates are up, CMHC’s data showed that the average rent for two-bedroom apartments in existing structures increased 2.4 per cent year-over-year.

The survey also covers condominium apartments offered for rent in 16 urban centres. It found that vacancy rates ranged from a high of 5.3 per cent in Edmonton to a low of 0.4% in Hamilton.

Average monthly rents for two-bedroom condo apartments were highest in Toronto ($1,754) and lowest in Quebec City ($1,065).

The final 2015 Rental Market Survey report and data will be released on December 16, 2015.

Copyright © 2015 Key Media Pty Ltd

Steve Randall
Other

Seventy per cent of detached homes in Vancouver’s west side were purchased by buyers from China, according to new academic study.

The study was undertaken by Andy Yan, a Vancouver city planner and researcher, between August 2014 and February 2015.

He found that during that six-month period there was a total of $525 million homes bought in the area with an average price of $3.05 million. Around 82 per cent were bought with a mortgage.

Yan’s research discovered that 73 per cent of purchasers were ethnic Chinese; for homes sold above $4 million, the figure rose to 94 per cent.

Five per cent of all homes were bought by corporations and 36 per cent of those homes valued above $3.05 million were bought by individuals listed as “housewives.”

Copyright © 2015 Key Media Pty Ltd