Sales of $1m-plus properties rise 46 per cent last year; sales in the $4m-plus sector increased by more than two thirds, reports luxury brokerage
Joannah Connolly
Other
Soaring home prices, especially at the higher end of the market, meant that Vancouver was Canada’s leading city for growth in top-tier ($1 million-plus) home sales in 2015, according to Sotheby’s International Realty Canada’s year-end Top-Tier Real Estate Report.
In 2015, 4,578 properties (including condominiums, attached homes and single-family homes) sold for more than $1 million in Vancouver – a 46 per cent rise compared with 2014. Of last year’s sales, 2,706 went for between $1 million and $2 million.
The gains were even bigger in the $4 million-plus sector, in which sales increased 67 per cent to 422 homes in 2015, up from 253 units in 2014.
When broken down by property type, Sotheby’s reported that the detached home market continued to be the most active of the property types within the top tier, with a total of 3,454 units sold above $1 million in 2015, an increase of 42 per cent over 2014.
Sales of townhouses, rowhomes and other attached properties over $1 million surged 95 per cent year-over-year, reflecting the rise in inventory of these properties, as the actual numbers were relatively small. There were 445 attached home sales over $1 million in Vancouver last year, compared with 228 in 2014. Of last year’s 445 sales, just two were for more than $4 million – “due largely to a lack of available inventory,” according to Sotheby’s.
Vancouver’s condo market saw a 44 per cent year-over-year increase in sales volume over $1 million, with 679 sales in 2015 versus 473 in 2014. Of the 679 sales last year, 528 were between $1 million and $2 million, and 32 were for more than $4 million.
Sotheby’s said of Vancouver’s condo market, “Due in part to rising property prices, the $4 million-plus category had the most notable gains, with an 88 per cent increase in transactions in 2015 overall, and a significant 163 per cent increase in number of units sold in the latter half of the year compared to the same six months in 2014.”
© 2016 Real Estate Weekly