What January slowdown? Greater Vancouver real estate started year hot and continues to accelerate
Peter Kenter
The Vancouver Sun
The Greater Vancouver real estate market recorded 2,454 home sales in January, the third highest of all time. Home supply remains limited, however, with a trend toward multiple offers. GETTY IMAGES
The early new year is a typically slow period for real estate. Not so in Greater Vancouver this year, where demand for properties remained strong through January — and appears to be accelerating. Supply, however, remains limited, resulting in substantial interest in available properties and a trend toward multiple offers.“With very few people heading for sunny destinations, the market started hot on January 1 and has picked up steam, week over week,” says Kevin Skipworth, owner/broker and chief economist of Dexter Realty. “We saw a strong market for detached homes as we closed out last year and that market is going into overdrive. Not to be left behind, the townhouse market is following closely and the apartment market is also a contender, with buyers seeking apartments more than they have been in previous months.”Buyers are largely motivated by a desire to live in different accommodations with some remaining in the same general area and others looking to relocate. Having spent so much of 2020 at home during the pandemic, many simply want a change, while others are making a shift to quarters that will better accommodate a home office or better suit a family spending more time at home.
“We’re seeing a broad range of buyers,” says Skipworth. “Renters looking to own, buyers who are looking to move into larger quarters, and others who are downsizing. There’s demand across all housing types and all demographics.”How hot was January’s real estate market? There were 2,454 properties of all types sold in Greater Vancouver, compared with 1,602 sales in January of last year and 1,120 sold in January 2019. This January recorded the third-highest number of sales of all time, nuzzling up to the record high of 2,574 in 2016.
However, the market continues to experience a shortage of properties of all types, resulting in significant buyer attention for properties offered.“Buyers in Greater Vancouver are demonstrating an insatiable demand for homes and there just isn’t enough supply to keep up,” Skipworth says. “For example, we saw a large number of showings requested for a house in Burnaby last month, with a significant number of offers following those showings. Multiple offers were becoming common in the latter half of 2020, but they’re now making up the majority of transactions. If you’ve considered selling your property, now is a good time to look at what the market is offering.”
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