Last year, Greater Victoria recorded most real estate sales since 2016
The latest report from the British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) shows that home sales in Greater Victoria in 2021 were just short of record breaking pre-pandemic numbers reached in 2016.
The report indicates that in December 2021 alone, there were 419 residential properties sold. The average price for a single-family home in the region rose 22.7 per cent to an all-time high of just over $1 million.
“In 2021, it was about 9,500 sales for Victoria and I think the record was 10,000 in 2016, so the second-best on record” said BCREA chief economist Brendon Ogmundson.
“A lot of that, though, is due to the severely low supply of listings, and I think if there had been a lot more choice out there, sales would have reached a record in Victoria.”
Ogmundson says the real estate market in B.C. and on Vancouver Island has been been very robust since the summer of 2020. He says despite the continuing pandemic and the most severe economic contractions in Canada since the Great Depression in the 1930s, the real estate market has seen a remarkable recovery.
“A lot of that is driven by record-low mortgage rates and a real desire for space,” said Ogmundson. “A lot of the demand we saw on the Island was people coming from the Lower Mainland trying to get more affordable, more available space.”
He says the demand for real estate in Victoria not only resulted in record-setting prices for single-family homes, but the price of condominiums has also rebounded.
“We started to see condos pick up after they lagged in the market through most of the pandemic,” said Ogmundson. “It’s all just a product of low supply in Victoria.”
Ogmundson says the Greater Victoria real estate market is likely the most severely constrained market in B.C. He says with a population of almost 400,000 people, there were only 400 available listings in Greater Victoria in December 2021.
“When you have a market with no supply and strong demand you’re going to get high prices,” said Ogmundson. “A market like Victoria was already under-supplied in 2019, then people withdrew their listings at the beginning of the pandemic, (and) we had this unexpected recovery and that drew down inventory even more.”
Ogmundson says another reason for the low number of listings is the migration of people moving to Greater Victoria from the Vancouver area. He says the influx of buyers from outside the region made an already low supply of homes even lower.
“Markets like the Island got more of the, ‘This was the plan in five years but we’re going to do it now instead,’ and I think the pandemic accelerated a lot of that movement (from the Lower Mainland),” said Ogmundson. “The Island is already challenged getting listings to the market because people usually go there to settle.”
Ogmundson says other reasons for the low inventory of available residential listings may be a reluctance by home owners to sell their homes during the ongoing pandemic or because the choices in a new home are limited.
“Even if you wanted to sell your home to take advantage of these high prices, there’s the issue of where you’re going to go,” said Ogmundson. “People are kind of stuck in place by just a lack of choice, which brings it back again to we need to expand the housing stock and provide more choice.”
Ogmundson says an increase in mortgage rates to pre-pandemic levels will help to dampen the demand, but he expects it may take another two to three years for the number of buyers and the number of available listings to even out.
“It helps supply because you have fewer sales and the total number of listings start to accumulate,” said Ogmundson. “We’re at all-time lows in supply and I think the listings in Victoria would have to quadruple to get back to a healthy level, so this is a long process to build those listings back up.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
House admonishes ArriveCan contractor in rare parliamentary show of power
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Trump lawyers say Stormy Daniels refused subpoena outside a Brooklyn bar, papers left 'at her feet'
Donald Trump's legal team says it tried serving Stormy Daniels a subpoena as she arrived for an event at a bar in Brooklyn last month, but the porn actor, who is expected to be a witness at the former president's criminal trial, refused to take it and walked away.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Customers disappointed after email listing $60K Tim Hortons prize sent in error
Several Tim Horton’s customers are feeling great disappointment after being told by the company that an email stating they won a boat worth nearly $60,000 was sent in error.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
'A living nightmare': Winnipeg woman sentenced following campaign of harassment against man after online date
A Winnipeg woman was sentenced to house arrest after a single date with a man she met online culminated in her harassing him for years, and spurred false allegations which resulted in the innocent man being arrested three times.
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter banned from NBA
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter has been handed a lifetime ban from The National Basketball Association (NBA) following an investigation which found he disclosed confidential information to sports bettors, the league says.
Attempt to have murder charge quashed against alleged serial killer dismissed by judge
A motion filed by the man accused of killing four Indigenous women in Winnipeg to have one of those murder charges quashed has been dismissed by the judge – weeks before the start of his trial.