Downtown Vancouver condo sales rebound after 2020 slump

Michelle McNally
Livabl

 

Nearly one year after condo sales sunk at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, new data shows that buyers have been returning to downtown Vancouver’s high-rise market.

According to recent research and reporting by The Georgia Straight, 105 condo properties were sold in Downtown Vancouver West — a major part of the city’s core — during February 2021. Although this region does not include other central areas like Coal Harbour, Yaletown and the West End, the 105 condo sales represent the largest volume in the past year within the downtown community, the Straight explained.

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Using information sourced from Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) and Zealty.ca, an online Vancouver property database, the Straight noted that the 105 unit sales in February represent a 52.2 percent month-to-month increase from January 2021. Twenty-nine of those 105 sales were reportedly sold at or above asking price.

Overall, prices in the area did not show a significant change when compared to the previous month, with the median condo price in Downtown Vancouver West dipping by a negligible 0.1 percent monthly to $699,000 in February 2021. The condo price per square foot has also made progress since the April 2020 slowdown, having risen from $1,030 that month to $1,247 in February, according to the article.

The Straight reports that condo sales in Downtown Vancouver fell to 29 units in April 2020, when the global pandemic tanked the local condo market. At that time, the median price of a condo hit its lowest point at $680,000. Sales slowly recovered throughout 2020 and the area recorded 82 unit sales by December.

Like other major cities across the country, Vancouver’s condo market slowdown has been attributed to buyers favouring larger single-family homes, resulting in significant sales activity in suburban communities. The urban exodus, which sees city dwellers move outward to smaller communities, has been referenced in market commentary since the beginning of the pandemic. In its reporting, the Straight mentions that, “while many are still willing to drive out to the suburbs in search of homes, purchasers seem to be enamoured again by the charms of downtown living.”

In its latest market report, REBGV said there were 1,759 condo sales in February across Metro Vancouver, a 65.8 percent increase from the same period a year ago. Price wise, Vancouver apartments experienced a mild increase, climbing 2.5 percent from both February 2020 and January 2021 to $697,500

 

© 2020 BuzzBuzzHome Corp.

Bricks-and-mortar stores anchor B.C.’s biggest developments

Frank O’Brien
Western Investor

— Oakridge Centre makeover includes 1 million square feet of retail. | Chung Chow

Don’t look up from your shopping screens, but bricks-and-mortar retail is now the foundation for B.C.’s biggest real estate developments and more than $600 million in investments, a year after the start of a pandemic that was forecast to drive the final nail into the coffin of storefront shopping.

The metrics do appear brutal.

Vacant retail space tripled in the second half of 2020, the biggest increases on record, pushing Metro Vancouver’s vacancy above 4 per cent.

“Vacancy rates in the retail sector are expected to move up dramatically into 2021, leading to a decline in market rents. On the demand side, 40 brands announced the closing of all their stores in Canada since March 2020 representing 1,100 stores that will close in 2021,” states a retail outlook released in February by Fiera Realty, and among the many gloomy forecasts for the sector.

Canadian retailers finished 2020 with $606 billion in sales, down 1.4 per cent from 2019. This was the largest annual decline since the 2009 recession, according to Statistics Canada, but lower than many expected when COVID-19 began.

B.C. was an outlier, posting a 2.3 per cent year-over-year increase in consumer spending in 2002 to lead the entire country.

However, despite a 70 per cent surge in online shopping last year, e-commerce accounted for less than 6 per cent of Canada’s total retail trade in 2020.

If face-to-face retail is indeed at deaths door, some of B.C.’s largest and most experienced developers failed to get the memo.

This year, approximately 3.2 million square feet of new retail space is either under construction or nearly complete from downtown Vancouver to the eastern Fraser Valley.

Shape Properties is now ushering the latest big-name tenants into 1.1 million square feet of retail space recently finished at its Amazing Brentwood development in North Burnaby. A few SkyTrain stops later, more than 1.5 million square feet of shopping space is the foundation of the $7 billion City of Lougheed development, also by Shape, on the Burnaby-Coquitlam border.

Latimer Village, the largest mixed-use development in the Township of Langley, includes 34,000 square feet of retail space and 60% of the space is leased though it won’t complete until 2022.

In South Surrey, Bosa Commercial included 50,000 square feet of retail in its twin-tower Miramar Village that completed late in 2020. Retail is also embedded in the majority of the new office and residential towers arising in Surrey’s downtown.

In downtown Vancouver, QuadReal’s Post development – one of the largest new commercial projects in B.C. – will include 185,000 square feet of retail, anchored by a massive 50,000-square-foot Loblaws, which will be the largest grocery store downtown when it opens next year.

Cadillac Fairview’s flagship Pacific Centre mall is replacing its landmark Georgia Street annex to add 14,000 square feet of retail over three floors, with all the space claimed for a new Apple outlet.

The 28-acre Oakridge Centre is touted as the single biggest real estate development in Vancouver’s history, according to co-developers QuadReal Property Group and Westbank Corp. It will deliver nearly 500,000 square feet of new retail, including a massive new Hudson’s Bay store, when it opens in 2024. The existing 574,000-square-foot shopping centre will be transformed into a 4.5 million square foot hub of retail, residential, workspace, parks, and civic space,

But bricks-and-mortar retail is the foundation of it all.

Investments in retail

Meanwhile, existing retail properties in B.C. continue to be in demand.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, sales of Metro Vancouver retail properties soared 50 per cent in total volume compared to the same period in 2019, according to Altus Group, which expressed “surprise” at the increase.

In all, Avison Young reports, sales of retail property in B.C. in 2020 reached 46 deals valued at $606 million. In terms of dollar volume, the overall value fell to its lowest point since 2009, but sales increased sharply as the year ended.

The $276 million in sales during the last three months of 2020 included the 139,000-square foot Trenant Park Square, a Delta shopping centre, which sold for $64.5 million to Keltic Canada Development, and the December sale of London Plaza in Richmond, closing for $57 million The 108,000 square foot plaza was sold by the Investors Group to a private investor for $538 per square foot.

Some of the larger Metro retail asset sales, agents suggest, are for future mixed-use development, likely with a larger retail component and residential.

Vancouver Island posted the largest retail asset sale in the second half of 2020, with the Woodgrove Centre in Nanaimo transacting to a new, private investor who immigrated from China, for $99.9 million.

“Investor’s and developers are not wrong. We will see a gradual bricks and mortar revival,” said Neil McAllister, senior vice-president, retail, with Lee and Associates, a Vancouver real estate agency.

“Online shopping has made huge gains, especially due to the pandemic, but consumers are experiencing shipping errors, hassle of returns and even increased pilferage of packages. There is an opportunity for bricks- and-mortar retailers to regain lost market share,” McAllister said.

 

© Copyright 2020 Western Investor

Affluent millennials and wealthy families sitting on a pile of cash are the latest drivers of high-end Canadian real estate

Avery Mullen
The Vancouver Sun

 Sales of homes valued at $4 million or more in the Greater Toronto Area saw a 157 per cent jump in activity. Photo by Tyler Anderson/National Post

The rise of affluent millennials, wealthy families sitting on a cash pile and remote-working trends have created a ‘perfect storm’ in the world of high-end real estate, according to a new report.

Sales of homes valued at $4 million or more in the Greater Toronto Area saw a 157 per cent jump in activity, while Vancouver saw a 41 per cent increase in the first two months of the year compared to the same period last year, according to Sothebys International Realty Canada, a high-end real estate broker.

“We’ve seen shifting homeowner and buyer needs,” Don Kottick, Sotheby’s Canada CEO, told the Financial Post in an interview. “There have been foundational changes in what people want from their home and what they look for in their home. And so that’s impacting the business.”

Sales activity in homes above $1 million in Montreal jumped 27 per cent during the period, while Calgary has also emerged from its deep freeze, with residential sales of more than $1 million up 119 per cent. Prices and sales have increased not only in major urban centres, but also in cottage country, such as the Muskoka and British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley regions. Sotheby said it did not aggregate data for all of 2020.

With economic shutdowns preventing younger consumers from spending money, many millennials are looking to invest their newfound savings in real estate. And they are tapping into low interest rates to buy higher-end properties, often with the help of cash-rich parents. Canadian currency and deposit holdings increased a whopping $205 billion over the past year, according to Royal Bank of Canada.

Stay posted with 10/3, our Canadian affairs podcast featuring expert perspectives, wherever you get your podcasts. Listen to the latest episode down below:

According to Mortgage Professionals Canada, about 4.5 or 5 per cent of Canadian households buy a home in a typical year, but that may have recently increased by as much as 1 or 1.5 percentage points. Older homeowners, meanwhile, are staying put.

A 2020 report by Sotheby’s and Mustel Group found that about 80 per cent of older homeowners planned to stay in their homes for as long as possible. Kottick believes the rising demand will also be bolstered by a coming influx of international buyers, as COVID-19 vaccines make travel more feasible. Instability in places like Hong Kong and political divide in the United States means that both Canadian expats and new immigrants are likely to consider moving to Canada.

Internationally, he said, Canada’s status as an emerging financial centre and technology hub makes it appealing to foreign buyers looking for an affluent and stable destination. Toronto is now considered the second largest financial centre in North America, according to government-backed think-tank Toronto Finance International.“The fact that we have technology and we have our financial system, that’s driving probably more people internationally to take a look at us,” said Kottick. “We’re safe, we have stable government, we have resources, so we have a lot of things that are making us attractive at a global level.”

He is concerned, though, that the market’s future outlook could be hampered by a possible attempt by government to address housing affordability problems by dampening demand across the entire real estate market. “Government really need to focus on creating more supply in all areas of the housing market,” Kottick said. “That is the only thing that is going to correct our problem with the shortage and with affordability.”

In December, in an effort to lower real estate prices, the federal government vowed to levy additional taxes on foreign buyers living outside Canada. And in 2016, the government of British Columbia imposed a tax on foreign buyers that saw foreign sales drop to almost zero by 2020, according to the B.C. Real Estate Association. The Ontario government also imposed a tax on foreign real estate buyers in 2017.

Mortgage Professionals Canada chief economist Will Dunning said the previous attempts by government to suppress housing prices by reducing demand, such as through taxation, have likely deterred the creation of new supply and potentially worsened the problem.

He suggested that one way to address the supply-demand gap might be to encourage existing homeowners to sell their properties, noting that his role at Mortgage Professionals Canada is that of a consultant and he was not speaking behalf of the organization. Dunning suggested eliminating or reducing the land transfer tax, given that home sellers often face moving costs of around eight or ten per cent of the value of their homes, including paying the transfer tax on their new residence. Lowering the cost of buying a new home could make them more willing to put their existing properties on the market.

“The government’s need to raise revenue, I totally get that,” Dunning said. “But I think the land transfer tax is a very inefficient tax… I would much rather the government education and municipal taxation be done through the ongoing realty tax, rather than one enormous tax.”

Kottick said removing the transfer tax might make a small difference to housing supply across the entire spectrum of the market, but added that systemic changes to reduce red tape around new housing and encouraging developers to start new projects is likely to have a greater effect.

“Give developers incentive so they want to bring more inventory in. That’s the fastest way,” Kottick said. “That’s the only thing that’s going to be a long-term solution. It could be looking at land use, allowing certain land to have different building codes that encourage multi-dwelling buildings.”

 

© 2021 Vancouver Sun

Two Victoria real estate agents fired after online accusations of sexual assault

Louise Dickson
The Province

 The Agency Victoria, a luxury real estate brokerage and lifestyle company, says it has terminated its relationship with two agents, effective immediately, after allegations of sexual assault. Photo by CHEK NEWS /Times Colonist

Warning: This story contains details of sexual assaults.

VICTORIA — Two male real estate agents were fired Thursday after women posted allegations of sexual assault on social media. Three women made the detailed allegations on the Vancouver Island Instagram account @survivorstoriesprojects.

“I want my story to be told because they have been continuing to do the same thing to girls and it needs to stop. I thought I was the only one but sadly that isn’t the case,” the first woman wrote in her anonymous online post.

The Agency Victoria, a luxury real estate brokerage and lifestyle company, responded to the allegations on its own Instagram account, saying it had terminated its relationship with the agents, effective immediately.

“As previously stated, we are aware of the very serious social media allegations towards two agents working under our brokerage. We want to be perfectly clear; we are shocked and deeply disturbed by the allegations … We stand in full support of women who have endured sexual abuse and we encourage anyone with information to come forward.”

The Local restaurant also responded to the allegations against one of the men, who is a minority partner. Owner Jeremy Petzing said he and the whole Local community were shaken by the allegation.

“The actions described are disturbing, disgusting and wrong. Our thoughts are first and foremost with the women who brought forward these allegations. Since learning about the accusations we have severed ties with the persons involved. They will not be welcome at The Local or Farmhouse.”

The first woman said the men are regular cocaine users who are part of an affluent circle in Victoria. They are known to send out multiple snap chats or messages to women in Victoria, inviting them to hang out or meet for drinks. The two men choose girls who are unlikely to come forward after an assault, the woman said.

One man always pretends to be alone. When the woman shows up at the agreed venue, his friend is with him. The two pay the bill when the woman arrives and say they are going to a new spot. But on their way to the next bar, they say they have to “pop into the office” quickly.

The woman said she was taken to a real estate office downtown. The men pulled out a bottle of wine and cocaine and said they wanted to do a few hits before moving on.

She became more and more intoxicated. She said she doesn’t do cocaine, and believes she was drugged. When she came to, the room was spinning. One of the men was performing oral sex on her, while the other was sitting on her face, she said.

 

The assault continued until she said she was going to be sick. She woke up by the toilet alone, rinsed her face and drank water from the faucet. She asked for her clothes and they left the office and put her in a cab.

When she protested, they told her nobody would believe her, she said.

The second woman wrote that she was 19 when she had a drink at the home of one of the men. They went into the bedroom, and then his friend showed up. The men started taking off her clothes and she told them to stop, but they told her to be quiet, she said.

She started to cry. She managed to get out of bed and locked herself in the bathroom. She was scared and didn’t know where she was.

“I decided to keep it a secret because I was terrified,” she wrote.

The two men showed up at her workplace the following Monday, she said. The woman wrote that she didn’t go out for some time because she was scared of running into them.

“I thought I was the only one, but sadly that wasn’t the case.”

The third woman wrote about making out with one of the men, and his roommate insisted on being part of it. The two men forcefully tried to take off her clothes and hid her purse so she couldn’t leave, she wrote.

Their behaviour was “predatorial and creepy to the point where I had to get aggressive and I remember grabbing my things as fast as I could and leaving,” she wrote.

 

© 2021 The Province

Vancouver 33-suite rental building sells at full list price of $10.5 million

Goodman Commercial Inc.
Western Investor

— Goodman Commercial Inc., Vancouver, for Western Investor

Property type: Multi-family rental

Location: 8755 Laurel Street, Vancouver

Number of units: 33

Lot size: 19,310 square feet

Lot size in acres: 0.44 acres

Zoning: RM-3A

List price: $10.5 million

Sale price: $10.5 million

Brokerage: Goodman Commercial Inc., Vancouver

Brokers: Mark Goodman and Cynthia Jagger

 

© Copyright 2020 Western Investor

More than half of ‘hard-hit’ businesses will not survive 2021

Elana Shepert
Western Investor

— Many pubs and restaurants have already closed.| Chung Chow

While many businesses in Vancouver and across Canada closed in the early months of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, many others continue to struggle financially. 

Now, the Coalition of Hardest Hit Businesses says the findings of a Canada-wide survey show that the firm majority of hardest-hit businesses–60 per cent of them–will not survive if the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS), as well as the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy (CERS), are not extended past the June 5 deadline to the end of the year.

The Coalition of Hardest Hit Businesses is an industry-driven group of over 100 stakeholders representing a variety of sectors including tourism, travel, arts and culture, events and festivals, accommodation and hospitality. 

Based on its survey results, the Coalition is formally appealing to the Federal Government to provide certainty and announce an extension of the CEWS and CERS supports to the end of the year for the hardest-hit sectors in the April budget. 

“Our businesses were the first hit by the pandemic, the hardest hit by closures, and will be the last to recover. With extended support, we can thrive and survive. Without it, Canada’s tourism, culture and hospitality industries will be devastated for a generation,” announced Beth Potter, President and CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada. 

Extension of the CEWS and the CERS program would be a “lifeline”

Prior to the pandemic, businesses that comprised the Coalition employed over 2 million Canadians, explains a release. Employees of these businesses are “predominantly women, young people, Indigenous and new Canadians”– and these groups have been particularly impacted by the pandemic.

Susie Grynol, President and CEO of the Hotel Association of Canada, says that extending the CEWS and the CERS program would be a “lifeline” for businesses impacted by the ban on mass gatherings. 

Similarly, Martin Roy, Executive Director of Festivals and Major Events, added that many festival and event organizers are nearing the point where they need to decide if they need to cancel planned activities. “Chances are, they are going to once again miss out on the opportunity to generate their revenues for the year. Other sectors of the economy may begin to recover as restrictions ease, but the events sector will not be in a position to do so and will require continued government support until a return to normal occurs.”

And while Potter acknowledges that the summer will likely see an easing of restrictions, decisions to “cancel conventions this fall have already been made.” 

The Coalition also stressed that efforts to safely stimulate domestic tourism, lower interprovincial travel barriers and reopen international borders are critically important. But such measures must be accompanied by critical support programs to ensure that highly affected sectors can bridge to the other side.

 

© Copyright 2020 Western Investor

Agassiz 47 acres with riverfront sells $1.4 million over assessment

Re/Max Nyda Realty
Western Investor

— Group, Re/Max Nyda Realty, Agassiz, B.C., for Western Investor

Property type: Land

Location: 920 Hamilton Road, Agassiz, B.C.

Land size: 47 acres

Zoning: RR1 (rural residential)

Potential: Residential development

BC Assessment value (2020): $304,000

List price: $1.94 million

Sale price: $1.70 million

Brokerage: 3A Group, Re/Max Nyda Realty, Agassiz, B.C.

Brokers: Freddy Marks and Linda Marks

 

 

© Copyright 2020 Western Investor

New 32-storey office tower set for Vancouver

Frank O’Brien
Western Investor

— New tower for 1166 West Pender opens in 2024 or 2025. | Reliance Properties

Reliance Properties of Vancouver has teamed with Texas-based Hines, one of the largest private real estate developers in the world, to announce a new 32-storey office tower at 1166 West Pender Street in downtown Vancouver.

This will be Hines’ first project in Vancouver, and the partnership is seen as the most notable office activity in Vancouver since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak more than a year ago.

“Reliance and Hines initiated and completed the partnership during the global pandemic, and our joint project will be the first post-COVID-19 office tower delivered in Vancouver that prioritizes health, safety and wellness into the design in a way not yet seen,” said Jon Stovell, president and CEO of Reliance Properties.

The site is the former Vancouver office for the Canada Revenue Service. That 140,000 square foot building will be demolished to make way for the new 361,000-square-foot Class AAA tower.

One of the major focal points of the project,and unique to Vancouver, will be the tower’s uppermost floors. The V-shaped top nine levels will feature private outdoor terraces, increasing new health, safety and wellness protocols. Underground parking will prioritize employee wellness with more bike stalls than parking stalls.

“Hines is one of the premier office builders in the world,” said Robert Levine, a partner and office specialist with commercial brokerage Avison Young, Vancouver, “I know Hines has been looking at the Vancouver market for years. I think it is a great testament to Vancouver that they are coming into the city now.”

Hines, headquarterd in Houston, currently has 165 developments underway around the world. Its property and asset management portfolio includes 576 commercial and residential properties, representing more than 246 million square feet, including approximately 13 million square feet in Canada.

“We chose Vancouver because we believe in its world-class economy and future, and this partnership was a natural fit because of Reliance Properties’ commendable track record and our shared values,” said Syl Apps, senior managing director for Hines. The company currently has Canadian operations in Toronto, Calgary and Edmonton.

A CBRE official called the announcement “a major boost in confidence.”

“Vancouver’s downtown office market activity has returned to approximately 85 per cent normal, albeit mostly small transactions,” said Blair Quinn, vice chairman of CBRE’s Vancouver commercial brokerage office.

According to Avison Young, the downtown vacancy rate as of the end of 2020 was 6.6 per cent, up from 4.4 per cent a year earlier, with more than 1.5 million square feet vacant, including about 560,000 square feet of excess space shoved back onto the market as subleases since the pandemic began.

“We know how important [safety and wellnes] will be to employees as they return to the office post-COVID-19 – and our objective was to design a building in partnership with Reliance that best helps our tenants attract and retain the highest-quality employees and talent in the Vancouver market,” Apps added.

The tower will target LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) WELL (a standard for advancing health and well-being in buildings) and WiredScore (improving tenant health through sustainable design and operational strategies) certifications.

There is no pre-leases signed as yet in the new tower, which is scheduled to complete in late 2024 or early 2025.

 

© Copyright 2020 Western Investor

Toronto housing market raised to “high risk”

Ari Altstedter
Mortgage Broker News

 Canada’s housing agency raised its risk assessment for the Toronto market to high, while also warning of overheating at the national level as the pandemic-driven surge in home prices shows no signs of slowing.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. now rates five of the country’s major markets as having a “high degree of vulnerability” to a sharp correction in prices, with Ottawa and Halifax joining the smaller centres of Hamilton and Moncton in the category.

Across the country, 76% of homes brought to market in the three months through December were sold in the same period, a threshold that indicates overheating nationally, according to the agency’s Housing Market Assessment, released Wednesday.

“What we’re trying to do here is identify the kind of vulnerabilities that could be the precursors to market corrections or house-price corrections,” Bob Dugan, chief economist at the CMHC said in a conference call with reporters. “Those are the kind of conditions that could lead to downward pressure on house prices, or a downward correction on house prices.”

The combination of rock-bottom mortgage rates and the pandemic-induced desire for bigger living spaces has pushed Canada’s housing market to record levels over the past year. Smaller cities and suburbs have posted the biggest gains as the rise of remote work liberated buyers to look farther afield from where their employers are based.

Policy makers are being urged to take action to cool the market, as the continued run-up in prices threatens to exacerbate the gulf between the rich and the poor and may sow the seeds for a destabilizing drop in values later.

Toronto Gains

In Toronto, Canada’s biggest city, the CMHC’s increased risk assessment was driven by an acceleration of price growth, with ground-level homes and suburban parts of the metropolitan area leading the way, according to the report. Excess inventory in the rental market, due in part to a near halt to immigration during the pandemic, also contributed.

Outside Toronto, the four cities with the highest risk assessments — such as Hamilton, or scenic and more affordable Ottawa or Halifax — have been top destinations for those willing to move as far as necessary to find a bigger home or a better quality of life.

But the trend’s biggest impact has been on much smaller communities, including Tilsonburg or Woodstock in Ontario, each with 35% annual price gains through February. Dugan cautioned that the CMHC doesn’t conduct separate risk assessments for those areas.

“When you thought about price acceleration, you used to talk about places like Toronto and Vancouver,” Dugan said. “It doesn’t come through as loud and clear in the national numbers when some of the imbalances are occurring outside” the largest cities.

 

Copyright © 2021 Key Media

Metro Vancouver real estate market at ‘moderate’ degree of vulnerability: CMHC

Cheryl Chan
The Province

The Canadian Real Estate Association says Canadian home sales through its multiple listing service system dropped by 2.3 per cent last month compared with October. Photo by Richard Buchan/The Canadian Press

Metro Vancouver has a “moderate” degree of vulnerability in its housing market largely because of too many new rental units sitting empty, said the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp. in a report Thursday.

It singled out excess inventory in new rental apartments, which has been hit hard by a drop in immigration and the number of international students, and loss of renters working in the service industry who may have lost their jobs due to the pandemic.

The excess inventory can be seen in the higher vacancy rate for newly completed apartments “that are asking for rents that are more than what is demanded by the market in these times,” said Eric Bond, senior specialist at CMHC. “Operators of those buildings might see some financial head winds in the short term.”

But this excess inventory is specifically in newly completed rental units, he noted, and does not reflect the broader rental market.

“Overall the region continues to face a shortage of rental housing options suitable for households with different incomes,” said Bond. “In the medium to long-term, new supply will be crucial to increasing housing access in the future.”

The report found that housing sales saw an “elevated level of activity” in late 2020 and into 2021, while new listings were falling in submarkets, increasing competition for scarcer homes. MLS prices increased 12 per cent year over year, it said, a pace not seen since 2017.

Sales rose faster than new listings in most areas in Metro Vancouver, showing a shift toward a seller’s market compared to a year ago, said the report.

It said overheating — where demand outpaces supply in the housing market consistently — is not currently a concern, but Bond noted this report is backwards-looking, analyzing data from the first quarter of 2021 and the last quarter of 2020.

Recent stories of homes selling quickly or selling significantly higher than asking prices may be an indication the trend will continue its uptick. “The market is quite active for buyers and sellers re-entering the market after taking a pause last year,” he said

 

© 2021 The Province