3.2-acre ALR exclusion in Abbotsford sells for $6.5 million

Frontline Real Estate Services
Western Investor

Recently removed from the Agricultural Land Reserve in West Abbotsford, B.C., the land is now designated for industrial development.

Property type: Industrial land

Location: 30189 Old Yale Road, Abbotsford, B.C.

Size of property: 3.2 acres

Sale price: $6.5 million

Date of sale: February 24, 2022

Brokerage: Frontline Real Estate Services, Surrey, B.C.

Brokers: Todd Bohn and Braydon Hobbs

© 2022 Western Investor

GTA home prices cool from February highs heading into spring

Michelle McNally
Livabl

Homebuyers looking in the Greater Toronto Area are no stranger to high prices. Since the COVID-19 pandemic started more than two years ago, prices in Toronto alone have increased over 20 per cent.

Yet, as the market hits peak springtime, communities across the Toronto region are actually noticing that home prices are trending downward.

New data released by HouseSigma shows that GTA home prices have been cooling from their record February numbers over the past several weeks.

From February to April 19th, the median sold price of a freehold townhouse fell the most compared to other property types, decreasing 22.6 per cent from $1.24 million to $960,000.

Housing Market News Alerts

Sign up for news alerts on the Toronto housing market

Median sold prices for GTA detached and semi-detached properties dropped at a similar pace from February to April, decreasing 12.1 per cent and 13.5 per cent over the near two-month period down to $1.45 million and $1.15 million, respectively. Between February and April, median sold prices for GTA condos reported the smallest decrease, falling 6.8 per cent from $740,000 to $690,000.

By community, some of the most notable price declines were noted in municipalities surrounding the City of Toronto. Located at the top of the GTA, Brock saw the median price of a detached home fall 29.25 per cent between February and April, an approximately $310,000 difference as prices dropped from $1.06 million to $750,000.

Similarly, median prices were down 20.98 per cent, 19.44 per cent and 15.9 per cent in Georgina, East Gwillimbury and King. In the GTA’s larger communities — Toronto, Mississauga and Markham — median prices dropped 9.08 per cent, 11.1 per cent and 11 per cent over the almost two-month timeline.

In all of the 25 communities HouseSigma analyzed in its report, prices grew in only one municipality. From February to April 19th, the median price of a detached house in Burlington increased from $1.56 million to $1.59 million, a 1.92 per cent jump.

While the selling price of homes have dropped, GTA properties are now spending double the amount of time on the market. When aggregated, the median number of days a Toronto home stays available for sale has increased from six days in February to 12 days in April.

Hungry home buyers might also be happy to have more selection now compared to a couple of months ago. The number of properties available for sale on the market rose from 6,886 homes in February to 12,120 properties in April.

In a recent RBC Economics report, Robert Hogue, RBC’s assistant chief economist, said that deteriorating affordability and higher interest rates would help to curve home prices, predicting that prices will peak this spring before weakening throughout the year. That said, stronger-than-expected gains made in 2022 so far will hike the annual average price for 2022 higher than predicted, up 8.1 per cent compared to 6.2 per cent. However, the 2023 annual average will likely fall 2.2 per cent instead of rising 0.8 per cent like initially predicted.

Compared to other markets, Canada’s most expensive communities — like Toronto — will feel the pain of rising rates the most.

“This will translate into larger annual price declines in 2023 in British Columbia and Ontario,” said Hogue. “By comparison, we expect activity and prices to be more resilient in Alberta, where local markets have more catching up to do following a prolonged slump before the pandemic.”

 

© 2020 BuzzBuzzHome Corp.

Poll: FHSA impact on first-time buyers’ purchases will likely be muted

Ephraim Vecina
Western Investor

Many Canadians say they will not be able to muster enough funds for the federal government’s tax-free savings program

 More than seven out of 10 Canadians (72.07%) who do not yet own a home, but want to eventually, think that the federal government’s First Home Savings Account (FHSA) will have little to no positive impact on their ability to buy their first home, according to a poll by fintech Hardbacon.

The FHSA was announced as part of Budget 2022’s commitments to improving the housing situation. Through this tax-free program, Canadians 18 to 40 years old are allowed to deposit $8,000 annually with a lifetime contribution of $40,000, helping them save for the down payment on their first home.

Of the 88.6% of respondents who said that they want to enter into homeownership, 70% want to use the FHSA. However, of the 30% who do not plan to use the FHSA, 54% said that this is because they do not understand the advantages of the program, while the other 46% said that they won’t have sufficient funds to save to contribute.

Read more: NDP leader pledges aid for first-time buyers and boost for housing supply

“The FHSA is a tax-free savings account, but it doesn’t mean that it actually makes saving for a down payment any easier, especially in hotter real estate markets. What the survey found is that the most effective source of a down payment is the Bank of Mom and Dad. Still, not everyone is that fortunate,” said Hardbacon’s Stefani Balinsky.

Nearly 83% of respondents do not expect any financial assistance from family when it comes to their first home purchase. Of this segment, 32.8% will be cutting down on their expenses so that they can put money into their FHSA in 2023, while 16.8% will reduce their RRSP contributions, 12.8% will reduce their TFSA deposit, and 9.6% will draw funds from their TFSA.

LATEST NEWS

 

Copyright © 1996-2022 Key Media, Inc.

House prices soaring amid continued low supply-high demand

Micah Guiao
other

The first quarter saw the highest gain on record since the index began

Canadian house prices saw an aggregate 25.1% year-on-year increase to $856,900 in Q1 2022, marking the highest gain on record since the index began, according to the Royal LePage House Price Survey.

By the fourth quarter, Royal LePage is forecasting that the aggregate price of a home will increase 15% compared to Q4 2021 – pointing to a mild slowing of the market in the lead-up to 2023 but still higher than original projections.

Read next: StatCan: Markets seeing sustained growth in home prices

Phil Soper, president and chief executive officer of Royal LePage, said the low supply-high demand imbalance would continue to drive up house prices in the months ahead. Even the Bank of Canada’s recent 0.5% hike won’t be enough to tame the impact of sharp price increases.

The temporary ban on foreign buyers will not provide material relief to potential homebuyers either, since it is reported the group does not make up a significant portion of homeowners in Canada.

“Entering 2022, we had anticipated a strong first half, and moderating real estate markets thereafter. Call it buyer fatigue or easing demand, these periods of uncomfortably high home price appreciation do run their course,” Soper said. “We are seeing the first signs of moderation in some regions, as more inventory is becoming available and competition eases slightly.”

Based on housing type, single-family detached homes rose 26.7% YOY to $906,100, while condominiums rose 19.7% YOY to $612,900 across the nation’s largest real estate markets. Multiple-offer scenarios for appropriately priced listings remain the norm in most communities, Soper said. This enables homeowners to sell them above the listed price.

Read more: Priced out of Ontario, which market are homebuyers turning their attention to?

“It is worth noting that most Canadians with higher loan to value mortgages have successfully passed the stringent federal requirements of the OSFI mortgage stress test – they have proven that they can manage significantly higher rate increases than we anticipate they will see,” Soper said.

LATEST NEWS

 

 

Copyright © 1996-2022 Key Media, Inc.

Richmond office developer eyes smaller spaces despite density bonus

Maria Rantanen
Western Investor

Pandemic has changed office demand in the Richmond market, developer claims

 Bene (No. 3 Road) Development wants to subdivide the upper floors of a proposed office tower in Richmond despite having received bonus density for large floorplates. / Submitted

Richmond wants developers to build large office spaces in its downtown, but one developer that received bonus density to do so now wants to create smaller office units in the project.

Bene (No. 3) Road Development Ltd. received 11,025 square feet of additional density for a 10-storey office and retail tower at 4700 No. 3 Road in the Aberdeen area as part of a January 2020 rezoning application. The city granted the bonus density on the condition that Bene not subdivide each floor of the planned tower into more than one strata lot.

But now Bene says market conditions require a revision to its agreement with the city.

“Due to the fact that we are facing dramatic changes in the market, we would like to emphasize that it is extremely difficult, [if] not infeasible, to market an office building under one strata title per floor,” a letter from the developer states.

It says the market is demanding smaller office units, in view of more people working from home.

Two councillors supported the developer’s proposal at the city’s April 20 planning committee meeting.

Couns. Andy Hobbs and Chak Au both spoke in favour of allowing the compromise to be approved, despite the fact it didn’t comply with a City Centre policy and city staff recommended not approving it.

Hobbs called the revised proposal a “reasonable compromise,” although he noted he’s argued in the past to stick to policy.

“But I think it’s also the role of council to make reasonable exceptions and discretionary decisions with regard to policy and that’s our role, and I think staff and council working together can achieve that,” Hobbs said about the development at No. 3 and Leslie roads, across the street from Superstore.

The original plan was to have one large office on each of the six top floors of the building. (The first four floors of the building are slated for retail use.)

A few weeks ago, the developer proposed scrapping any unit-size restrictions, but still wanted to keep the extra floor area that was granted as a bonus.

“Effectively, the applicant was requesting the ability to keep the additional density granted without having to fulfill the primary condition (i.e., creation of large floorplate leasable office space) that was secured in exchange for the increase in density,” reads the city staff report.

The planning committee didn’t approve that and last week the developer came back with a revised proposal, which would see two floors of large units and the other four floors broken up into smaller units.

One of the remaining four floors would be divided into two units. The other three floors would have offices as small as 650 square feet.

The developer also proposes giving $80,000 to the affordable housing fund.

Au said he supports the “spirit” of the large-office policy but he called the revised plan a “good compromise.” He added that no one could have predicted the changes that have happened over the past few years, ostensibly referring to the COVID-19 pandemic when many offices shut down as people worked from home.

“This kind of mix would be a good compromise in response to market changes,” Au said.

Au questioned, however, whether a proposed $80,000 contribution to the affordable housing fund was “a fair cash contribution.”

The general manager of planning, Joe Erceg, told the planning committee that Richmond shouldn’t doubt the city’s ability to attract large businesses. Most large businesses, however, are currently located in business parks outside City Centre because that’s where there are large units.

He noted the policy – to give extra density in exchange for creating large office units – was created to attract large businesses to City Centre. The report notes large offices would attract companies that are in information technology, clean tech and digital creative sectors.

“If you chop it all up before it’s built, you will not have any success attracting such businesses because you won’t have suitable premises for them,” Erceg said.

Furthermore, the most viable area for offices is City Centre, and this can be seen in its low vacancy rate of under five per cent, Erceg added.

Large offices support a “diversified economy,” city staff note in their report to city council.

Last week, the committee asked staff to provide more information on the value of the bonus before a final decision is made.

The item is back on the planning committee agenda for May 3.

 

© 2022 Western Investor

Census on Metro Vancouver housing shows shift of missing middle families continues unabated

Derrick Penner
The Vancouver Sun

Young families continue to move where more spacious housing is being built, while apartments take over as the housing type in the city core

 COVID-19 accelerated Metro Vancouver’s migration of younger families from urban centres to the suburbs, according to census figures released Wednesday, which planners say challenges all municipalities to meet family needs. Photo by Francis Georgian /PNG

COVID-19 accelerated Metro Vancouver’s migration of younger families from urban centres to the suburbs, according to census figures released Wednesday, which planners say challenges all municipalities to meet family needs.

“The missing middle is really in Surrey, with some really good heat happening over in the District of Langley,” said urban planner Andy Yan, upon his first review of the data, using the shorthand term for young, middle-class families increasingly priced out of real estate in Vancouver’s inner suburbs.

Surrey, the City of Langley, the Township of Langley and Maple Ridge are all areas where the proportion of housing being built skews toward townhouses and houses versus Vancouver, where apartments, either condo or rental, are now solidly the most dominant housing form.

In Vancouver, 62 per cent of occupied dwellings are apartments, vs. just 15 per cent that are detached homes and 23 per cent that are townhouses.

 

Compare that with Surrey, where 33 per cent of occupied dwellings are detached homes, 42 per cent townhouses and 25 per cent are apartments, and the shift is about “family sized housing,” said Yan, director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University. “The issue of adequate housing is that it’s not only about affordability, but is it adequate to the household at their particular life cycle. It’s affordability, it’s security of tenure, it’s size, then design and amenities.

“That’s what makes it harder for some municipalities than others,” Yan added, with municipalities such as Vancouver locked into its pre-existing grid, while the expanding municipalities such as Surrey have more room to build other housing types.

 

Still, demand for housing in the province still far outstrips supply, experts say, even as the latest census figures show growth in the number of homes was higher than the increase in population countrywide. Statistics Canada reported Wednesday that growth in apartments in a building with five or more storeys has far outpaced other types of dwellings across the country, though single-family homes remain the dominant form, making up about half of all dwellings.

“The trend in the pandemic that was noticeable was people that elected to live in a condo close to work downtown, suddenly working from home, migrated to the suburbs,” said realtor Ron Antalek of Re/Max Lifestyles Realty.

Now, with pandemic restrictions eased, markets have “normalized.” Antalek added there are “still many people that are working from home” joining the migration east.

 

The municipalities that have seen growth, such as Surrey and Langley, are also the ones that have available land and been “supportive of townhouse developments, kind of that missing middle soft density,” said realtor Adil Danani.

“It’s official community plans that are supportive of seeing more supply,” said Danani of Royal LePage West. “I think that’s what’s happening in Surrey, what’s happening in Langley.”

The next challenge, however, will be for municipalities experiencing growth to knit their neighbourhoods together and for cities to “up their game” in creating family friendly neighbourhoods, said urban planner Brent Toderian.

Toderian said the pandemic effectively “broke its contract” with urban citizens who had traded long commutes from more spacious homes for the convenience of walkable precincts closer to work.

 

During the pandemic “we had times where we were told to stay inside,” he said.

Now that pandemic restrictions have eased, Toderian believes the suburbs that will do better will be those that “better integrate urban living (well),” and cities that succeed “that are designed specifically for families will win.”

“That’s why cities like Surrey and Burnaby are building real downtowns. They’re building urban places that are fundamentally different,” Toderian said.

Yan added that the challenge for Vancouver is to use its existing family oriented infrastructure — parks, schools and community centres — to draw family friendly density.

“The core question and core term is family,” Yan said. “These (Vancouver) neighbourhoods really need to be centred around families.”

 

Vancouver has made headway in requirements for two- and three-bedroom units in new development, but Yan said more focus still needs to be put specifically on the family element.

“We can’t be a city (and) I don’t think we want to be a city of just studios and one-bedroom (apartments),” Yan said.

 

© 2022 Vancouver Sun

How to invest $500k in real estate

Corben Grant
Canadian Real Estate Wealth

 When it comes to real estate, the more money you have, the more options you can find for investing. For those with less money even, there are still options to take advantage of the real estate market to grow your wealth, however, it helps to have a bit more to get started with.

Let’s say you have $500,000 and are looking to invest. Be it from savings, other investments, or a large windfall like an inheritance, that’s a lot of money to work with so it’s important you make the right decisions. You could very easily spend half a million dollars faster than you realize and be broke before you know it, or, you can invest your money wisely and see it grow even further.

There are many options to invest in – the stock market, mutual funds, cryptocurrency, exchange-traded funds, and more. But real estate is one of the most popular options for investors for its unique benefits.

In this article, we will answer the question: “How should I invest $500k in real estate?” and give you some ideas of what options might be best for you.

Why real estate?

Real estate has long been considered a very wise investment. People love investing in real estate because it allows them to grow their money easily while maintaining a lot of value in the long term against market fluctuations.

Though real estate can be volatile, it is much more stable than something like the stock market. More importantly, it offers a place for people to live and work and find entertainment which is fundamental to our society that the demand for real estate is almost completely future-proof (unless the metaverse really takes off).

Large financial requirements can be the biggest barrier to investing in real estate

Why don’t more people invest in real estate? Well, they do. Every year more people are looking to add real estate to their investment strategy, especially with our current economic conditions. For those that don’t invest, there is usually a single factor that limits them – the money. 

 

Real estate is more expensive than most other assets and all those benefits can be hard to access to their fullest potential if you can’t reach the financial requirements.

The good news for you is that you have $500,000. With that amount of money, you have nearly all avenues of real estate investing open to you to try out, from the smallest of REIT investments all the way to large commercial properties.

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket

While there are many options for low-risk investments in real estate, no investment is ever guaranteed to perform. And, with so many great options in real estate, why not try out a few? With $500,000 you have some wiggle room to diversify your investment portfolio, improve your overall risk tolerance and benefit from growth in multiple different real estate segments.

For example, you could mix active and passive investing by managing a rental property and owning a stake in a real estate fund. Or, you could enter into both the commercial and residential side of real estate for each segment’s different benefits. You could buy property in multiple different cities or towns or you could simply buy two properties of the same type and double your cash flow potential.

Options for investing in real estate

Residential real estate

$500k will cover a significant amount of a down payment for a home or even allow you to purchase a home outright in many areas of the country. This could be a home for your own residence or it could be a rental property.

Personal residence vs, rental property

If you buy a home to live in, you get the obvious lifestyle benefits as well as potential equity growth that can mean a large profit down the line (and remember, primary residences are exempt from capital gains taxes.) A rental offers the same equity opportunities, but also can allow you to collect cash flow while you own. This can help offset the carrying costs and once you’ve covered your housing expenses it becomes pure profit for you.

Buy in cash or finance?

As mentioned before, you could potentially afford a residential property outright, but should you? Buying in cash is nice because it saves you the hassle of securing financing and allows you to have full ownership of your home right away. However, it also limits your options. For one, homes under $500,000 (even if you don’t account for closing costs) are becoming increasingly rare. At the same time, owning equity does not do much for you until you sell or take out a line of credit, so your money will be tied up in the home. Instead, you could choose to finance and keep some of your money for other more liquid investments or look into financing multiple rentals and have better access to continuous cash flow.

Commercial real estate

Commercial real estate is an area that takes a bit more money to get into and can be a very different type of investment to manage, but there are so many options for those with money to invest.

Commercial real estate covers many different property types, from multifamily buildings to industrial, commercial, office space, and more. Each property type will offer its own benefits for investors. For example, multifamily buildings are a lot like residential rentals, but with much larger cash flow potential. On the other hand, something like a retail or office space can offer the benefits of long-term leases (up to 10 years in some cases), which means steady and consistent income.

If you don’t want to manage your own investment property, you can even offload a lot of your properties needs to a property management company or a tenant and enjoy a much more hands-off experience.

 

Other ideas

As we mentioned earlier, your options at this price point are numerous. Here are a few more you could consider:

• Become a lender to other real estate investors
• fund a real estate development
• Purchase vacant land to build upon
• Invest in a real estate fund or crowdfund for passive growth
• Closing thoughts

Every investment comes with some risk, so it’s crucial that you understand where your money is going and what it can do for you. However, if you don’t know what your options are, you may be leaving money on the table.

I hope you now have a better idea of some of your options for investing up to $500,000 in real estate, however it doesn’t end here. For such a large sum of money, you should definitely consider speaking to an investment planner or qualified financial advisor to get the best information for your specific circumstances. Good luck with your investing!

 

 

© Canadian Real Estate Wealth

GTA housing market – Robust sales, low supply

Ephraim Vecina
other

However, signs of a generalized market slowdown are looming, observers warn

 The GTA new home market saw sustained sales strength and inventory shortfalls in March, according to the latest data from Altus Group and the Building Industry and Land Development Association.

A total of 4,115 new home sales took place in the region in March. While this was 21% lower than the extraordinary pace seen during the same month last year, it was still 12% higher than the 10-year average for March.

However, “signs of slowing are emerging, as higher interest rates alongside record prices start to impact demand,” said Edward Jegg, research manager at Altus Group.

Condo sales fell by 7% annually (down to 3,277 transactions), and single-family home sales had an even more precipitous 50% decline (down to 838 transactions).

Read more: Toronto park rezoning proposal aims to boost region’s housing supply

The region’s remaining inventory of condos registered an annual decline for the 10th straight month (down to 7,220 units), while single-family home supply plummeted by more than 50% (down to 830 units).

“Although new home sales eased in March compared to the exceptionally strong pace of the past few months, demand continued to outpace the supply of new homes, leaving the region with an inventory shortfall,” said Dave Wilkes, president and CEO of BILD. “We cannot let short-term market variations mask the root causes of the housing supply and affordability challenge in the GTA. We need to keep our eyes on the long-term solution: building more new homes.”

GTA’s condo benchmark price spiked by 17.7% year over year to reach a record high of nearly $1.253 million, while the benchmark for new single-family housing grew by 27.3% to end up at $1.838 million.

LATEST NEWS

 

Copyright © 1996-2022 Key Media, Inc.

Calgary’s new multi-family market reports higher presence of Ontario investors

Michelle McNally
Livabl

Cheaper housing, higher wages lure families east
The sunshine and beauty are assets, but high housing costs are driving some Okanagan residents back to the Prairies.
She’s 32-years old, has three children and a good income, but Andie is moving back to Alberta because it’s just too expensive in Kelowna.
The cost of living, especially housing, is forcing her to go back to Edmonton, where she grew up.
Andie came to the Okanagan in 2011 and pays $2,300 a month for what she describes as a very small, three-bedroom apartment. For a time, she shared it with her mother, to help cover costs.
“I have a full-time job, but I’m expecting. So, once I leave my job my income is going to go down and the cost of renting here is too high for our incomes,” she says.
Andie says what she can find in Edmonton is half the cost and much bigger. She can also stay with relatives while she looks for a new job and home. She adds that the options for school and childcare are also better.
Unfortunately, the move is going to split up her family.
“My oldest is 12. He wants to stay because his friends and school and life is here,” she says. He will be living with his dad.
“My other middle child is 10 and he wants to come with mom. And I have a little five-year-old that’s just with me.”
Andie calls it very stressful. She earns $3,600 a month in Kelowna as a legal assistant but she suspects she will make that or more in Alberta.
Another woman who answered a question on the Kelowna Moms Facebook page about leaving the Okanagan for somewhere more affordable said her family moved to Edmonton earlier this year.
“We moved in January and bought a house for $332,000. Four-bedroom three-bath 2,700 sqft. Daycare for two kids ages three and one is only $400 a month full-time,” Serena Husel Richardson posted. “My mortgage is cheaper than when we were paying for rent…. Honestly the only thing I miss about Kelowna is the nature… but we will just vacation there as we now have wayyyyy more money to do so!”
It’s not just young families that are leaving.
Kaye and Bob Chisholm of Brainy Bee Honey on Valley Road are returning to Saskatchewan after 22 years in the Central Okanagan.
“We’re going to sell this property and we’re going to move back to Saskatoon. We lived in Saskatoon before we moved here,” says Kaye, who acknowledges they’ll have to get used to Prairie winters again. “It is a known factor. It’s not like we’re going to something we don’t know.”
The exodus to the east is being watched by the Calgary Real Estate Board.
Chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie says they are seeing a shift in migration patterns with people starting to move back from other provinces, although fourth-quarter 2021 numbers still showed Alberta losing more people to B.C. She adds that it will be interesting to see if the first-quarter 2022 stats indicate a change in flow.
Calgary home prices fell along with oil prices nearly a decade ago and slipped even further during the pandemic. They have been climbing back up to 2014 levels in recent months. However, the median single-family home price is still well below Kelowna, at $629,000 in April.
“And we just went above $600,000. We were at $550,000 by the end of last year,” she adds.
Condo prices in Alberta’s largest city have not recovered from the pandemic hit.
“They’re still 10 per cent below where they were, unadjusted for inflation, back in 2014. And you put some perspective on that in price, and our condo prices–sort of like the average resale condo is under $300,000,” explains Lurie.
She notes outlying communities like Airdrie and Cochrane are even more affordable than Calgary. The benchmark price in Airdrie is $480,000 and in Cochrane, it’s $530,000.
Edmonton is also a relative bargain. The average April price for a three-bedroom home was $446,000.
Lurie points out that there has been job growth recently, especially in professional services that tend to come with better salaries, including in the tech sector and in the oil and gas industry.
“Coming from the fact we struggled for so long it is a nice change to see that growth. And we’re finally seeing it impact flows. What we were seeing during the pandemic was people were generally leaving to go to other provinces and we’re finally starting to see a turnaround in that,” she says.
She adds that it’s nice to see Alberta with a bit of an advantage after everything it’s been through.
“We don’t mind having them come back,” Lurie says.
Andie sums up what a lot of people in the Central Okanagan might be feeling right now.
“We pay for the sunshine and beauty here, I guess.”
But for her, that price is now too high.

© 2022 Western Investor

Real estate: Most expensive and least expensive homes sold in Vancouver over the past month

Staff Reporter
The Vancouver Sun

The price range for home purchases in Vancouver over the past 30 days was between $295,000 and $17 million.
The most expensive detached home sold in the past 30 days was at 2958 West 45th Avenue in Kerrisdale for $17 million. Photo by Submitted /zealty.ca
Metro Vancouver’s real estate market has changed.
Interest rates are going up as the federal government seeks to control inflation, brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and the government’s own policy of keeping rates low to encourage pandemic spending.
As a result, real estate prices have stalled as buyers take stock.
Here’s a look at the cheapest and most expensive Vancouver detached homes, townhomes and condos sold over the past month:

Most Expensive Detached Home

This home at 2958 West 45th Avenue in Kerrisdale sold on April 2, 2022 for 20 per cent less than first asking price at $17 million. Photo by Zealty.ca
The most expensive detached home sold in the past 30 days was at 2958 West 45th Avenue in Kerrisdale for $17 million.
This 8,520 square foot house was on the market for 59 days. It was initially listed for $20.98 million, then dropped to $18.988 million.
This means the seller got 20 per cent less than what they were expecting when it first listed. The property sold on April 2, and was reported as sold on April 14.
It’s a relatively new build over an acre of land and designed by architect Howard Airey. The house has six bedrooms and almost 2,000 square feet of patio space. The home was assessed as of July 1, 2021 at $17.92 million.

Most Expensive Townhome

This townhome at 485 Beach Crescent, Vancouver, sold on April 12 for $3.499 million. Photo by Zealty.ca
The most expensive townhome sold in Vancouver in the past month sits across the road from George Wainborn Park in Yaletown in downtown Vancouver.
The townhome, at 485 Beach Crescent, is 2,600 square feet spread over three levels
It sold on April 16 for $3.499 million — which was also the asking price.
The three-bedroom listing (with 600 square feet of decks) only sat on the market for four days. The monthly maintenance fee is hefty at $1,685 a month.
It is assessed at $2.94 million.

Most Expensive Condo

A condo in the 26-storey Pacific Rim Hotel building in Coal Harbour has sold for $7.2 million. Photo by Zealty.ca
There were more than 300 condos sold in Vancouver over the past month, including 21 worth more than $2.5 million. Of the 300, 22 were at UBC and 121 in the downtown core.
Perhaps surprisingly, the most expensive condo sold was worth more than twice the value of the most expensive townhome — at $7.2 million.
This 2,667 square foot, one-level condo sits within a 26-storey tower at 1011 Cordova Street (Fairmont Pacific Rim) in Coal Harbour.
It was listed for 55 days at $7.68 million before selling on March 31.
The condo has 360 degree views of Vancouver and access to all sorts of amenities with a monthly strata fee of $2,427.

Cheapest detached home

This home at 526 East Cordova Street sold for $1.149 million.
There were 14 detached homes sold for less than $1.5 million in Vancouver over the past month.
Story continues below
The cheapest was at 526 East Cordova Street for $1.149 million.
This rundown 2,600 square foot home sits on a 122 foot deep and 25 foot wide lot with rezoning potential in the Downtown Eastside.
The home was built in 1910 so there might be heritage density possibilities. It looks like it was a beautiful home at one point but now appears unlivable and is alongside a chicken rendering plant.
It was assessed at $1.177 million.

Cheapest townhome

This townhome at 2605 East 43rd Avenue in Vancouver sold for $620,000. Photo by Zealty.ca
The cheapest townhome sold in Vancouver over the past month was in the Killarney neighbourhood for $620,000.
This listing at 2605 East 43rd Avenue was on the market for six days. It is 579 square feet with one bedroom and a monthly strata fee of $150.

Cheapest condo

The cheapest condo sold over the past month went for $295,000 in a development called Gardenia Villa on the 2400-block of East 10th Avenue. Photo by Zealty.ca
There were 42 condos sold in Vancouver over the past thirty days for less than $500,000.
The least expensive of the lot went for $295,000 in a development called Gardenia Villa on the 2400-block of East 10th Avenue.
Originally listed for $574,000, it sold on April 4 for almost 50 per cent less. Two other condos in the same development sold for around the same in the past month.
The reason is because this is a leaky condo that banks will not finance. The listing states a special levy of $226,000 will be paid in full by the seller upon completion.

© 2022 Vancouver Sun