File photo.
The aggregate price of a Victoria home is $659,685, up 5.3 per cent year-over-year, according to a second-quarter Royal LePage housing price report.
The market survey says sales are down in the region, but the average price for a two-storey home is up 0.6 per cent to $863,206.
A big jump is seen in the median price for bungalows and condominiums, with bungalows up 8.2 per cent to $730,872.
The average cost of a condo jumped 8.0 per cent year-over-year to $488,513.
Royal LePage says new mortgage rules and the uncertainty of what impact the provincial government’s proposed speculation tax has on potential buyers in B.C. has contributed to the sales drop.
“Canadians who purchase in Victoria for their university-aged kids or those that pre-purchased for their future retirement are mostly staying away until they see the effects of the speculation tax,” Royal LePage managing broker Jay Rockwell said.
“Victoria is a place where many Canadians like to ‘winter’ but now they are very concerned how this tax will affect them. The new tax coupled with the new rules in the Residential Tenancy Act will make it near impossible for these people to come away unscathed.”
The survey says inventory has increased but is 40 per cent below the 10-year average.
The report anticipates house prices to continue to rise in the next quarter, but at a slower pace if the number of houses up for sale continues to increase.
HOUSING STARTS ALMOST DOUBLED IN VICTORIA LAST MONTH COMPARED TO JUNE 2017
The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) released housing start figures Tuesday and Metro Victoria’s 2018 pace is way ahead of last year.
CMHC says year-to-date housing starts in 2018 are 45 per cent ahead of 2017 levels through June, with 512 starts last month and 1,768 halfway through the year.
There were 279 housing starts in the same month last year and 1,218 through the first six months of 2017.
CMHC says the response to low vacancy rates meant a substantially higher rate in multi-home starts last month, with 418 of the total being multiple homes.
Langford continues to lead the way in the region, with construction starting on 307 apartments in June, nearly half of its year-to-date 661 multiple starts.
There was 49 multiple home starts last month in Victoria and 39 in Central Saanich, a municipality that had no apartment builds in June of 2017.
Single-family home starts are down for the year in Metro Victoria by 10 per cent.
Housing starts are up in Courtenay by 23 per cent with 206 builds underway in 2018.
Although single-family starts are down 22 per cent, multiple home builds have climbed almost 70 per cent over last year.
CMHC says a strong month for apartment starts in Nanaimo pushed the city closer to last year’s overall pace.
There were 88 multiple housing starts in June to bring the 2018 total to 359 total, 28. 2 per cent under the 500 starts at the same point in 2017.
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