CRE
The Vancouver Sun
Demand has far outstripped supply in the Vancouver housing market, driving prices skyward.
The median price for a single-family detached home on the city’s west side hit $2.91 million last month. That’s a spike of 15.9% from October of 2014 and a 42% jump from the same time in 2013. On the east side, the median price last month was $1.29 million, 29.4% higher than last year and 47.7% above 2013 prices.
The average home price for all of Greater Vancouver hit a record high of $1.58 million in October. Prices for detached homes within the city of Vancouver hit an average of $2.2 million in September. These price gains are driven largely by extremely limited supply.
“When my clients go to open houses, they see a lot of people who end up bidding,” Ken Wong, an agent with Royal Pacific Realty Group, told the Globe and Mail. “Bidding wars are common. There just isn’t enough housing product out there.”
Foreign investors – especially buyers from China eager to snap up high-end properties on the city’s west side – have garnered a lot of media attention as a key driver of price gains. However another driver is simply lack of available land to develop. Vancouver is effectively boxed in by the ocean on one side and mountains and protected lands on the other.
Whatever the ultimate cause, Vancouver currently has the highest housing prices in the country. Toronto came in at number two, with average prices for detached houses sold in the city at $1.05 million, a 10.7% increase over last year and up 23.1% from 2013.
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