If you think there are more for sale signs around Greater Victoria, you’d be right.
May saw more than 3,000 listings — up 26 per cent from May of 2018.
Sales are also up over both last month and last year.
“I think in the end it shows we’ve always had a demand and always will have a demand for Victoria properties,” says real estate agent Kyle Kerr, past president of the Victoria Real Estate Board (VREB).
The average price for a single-family home was $856,061.
That’s a drop of almost $65,000, or 7.1 per cent, from May of 2018.
“A lot of those price decreases were at the higher end of the market,” Kerr explains. “If someone’s out there looking for a more affordable condo or an affordable single family home with a suite, they’re actually seeing prices are staying really strong and potentially going up in some areas.”
Those areas are Esquimalt, Sooke, Langford, Colwood and parts of Saanich — places that tend to be more affordable.
Condo prices also saw a small increase in May.
The average price for a condo in Greater Victoria was $470,311, up 1.2 per cent from the same period last year.
Greater Victoria is still considered a balanced market.
But could the bubble burst given corrections in key markets like Vancouver and Toronto? Experts say it’s highly unlikely.
“Vancouver is a true international city and that comes with its positives and its negatives,” Kerr says. “They’ve had such a run-up for such a long amount of time. We never had the same amount of increases they did.”
Real estate agents say the new mortgage stress test is definitely having an impact — and so is B.C.’s speculation tax.
But because the Capital Region is such a desirable location, prices are expected to stay fairly steady.
Tess van Straaten
