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CONDO HEAVEN: More than 2,000 new condominiums sold in downtown Vancouver last year and a similar level is expected in 2008, according to new survey MPC Intelligence Inc. Photo: Real Estate Weekly
The downtown core of Vancouver will continue to see robust condominium sales into 2008, but there is a clear trend away from investors to owner-occupiers, a leading analyst says. “Throughout the Greater Vancouver, end-users have replaced the speculative investors as the primary [new condo] purchaser,” said Jennifer Podmore, managing partner of MPC Intelligence. In a recent survey report Podmore said that, last year, 17,914 new homes were purchased across Greater Vancouver, and 13,600 of these were strata-tile units. As of the end of 2007, there was an estimated 5,520 new condominiums available for sale, or about 19 per cent of the newly completed inventory. The downtown market saw 2,055 condo sales last year, representing 11.5 per cent of the new home market. The City of Vancouver saw 3,500 condo sales, with nearly 60 per cent of these high-rise units. Podmore thinks 2008 new condo sales with track close to 2007, because of B.C.’s “strong economic fundamentals”. Meanwhile, the vacancy rate for condos that are rented out in Vancouver is a mere 0.2 per cent, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. who estimates there are only about 160 condos vacant, despite the high number of completions.