Real estate market stabilizing on Vancouver Island, says B.C. Assessment

Housing assessments in British Columbia show the real estate market is showing signs of stabilization on Vancouver Island.

BC Assessment, an organization that collects and analyzes housing data, sent out its annual property assessments in the mail on Thursday and published regional results online, with the numbers reflecting real estate market data as of July 1, 2019.

The Vancouver Island numbers reflect data sourced from communities located within Greater Victoria, South Island, Central Island, North Island, West Coast, Northern and Southern Gulf Islands and Powell River.

“In the south part of Vancouver Island, the majority of residential property values are moving -5% to +5%, while up island the value increases are a little higher.  The commercial and industrial markets are generally showing increases over last year’s assessments.” said Vancouver Island Assessor Tina Ireland in a release.

Range of percentage changes in value for different regions on Vancouver Island (BC Assessment)

The overall numbers show an increase from about $246 billion in 2019 to $255 billion this year, with a large portion of the change resulting from new construction and subdivisions.

According to B.C. Assessments numbers for single-family residential properties, the biggest spikes in value were reported in Tofino and Alert Bay at 15 per cent. Tofino’s average home price increased from $767,000 to $883,500 while Alert Bay saw an average increase from $129,000 to $148,000. Sayward saw a 14 per cent increase in value while property in the City of Campbell River saw an 11 per cent increase.

“It’s a much more stable market than we’ve had in the last three or four years, I would suspect that it’s still an affordability issue in that Sooke is always a little bit more affordable than Greater Victoria and Langford has a lot of strata developments that are being constructed.” Gerry Marolla, Deputy Assessor of the Vancouver Island Region told CHEK News.

In the Greater Victoria area, every community saw a decrease in value or stayed the same with the exception of Langford and Sooke.

“It’s a much more stable market than we’ve had in the last three or four years, I would suspect that it’s still an affordability issue in that Sooke is always a little bit more affordable than Greater Victoria and Langford has a lot of strata developments that are being constructed.” Gerry Marolla, Deputy Assessor of the Vancouver Island Region told CHEK News.

The organization is emphasizing that their assessments are really tailored and reflective of each unique community.

“Changes in property assessments really depend on where you live,” said Ireland in the release. “For example, assessed values of homes in many areas of Metro Vancouver will see a softening in value, while other markets and areas of the province will see minimal change and even modest increases over last year’s values.”

Total numbers of BC Assessment’s yearly total value of properties in the province since 2009 (BC Assessment)

This year B.C. Assessment looked at over two million properties across the province and the data shows the value of the entire real estate market has dropped 2.5 per cent to a total of $1.94 trillion from 2019.

When looking at some of the other numbers, typical value of a single-family home in Vancouver has dropped 11 per cent from $1.76 to $1.57 million, while the communities of Whistler and Pemberton rose five per cent. One area that saw a massive spike in value was Kitimat up in Northern B.C. delivering a 41 per cent increase due to the massive LNG Canada project being built.

If property owners have any concerns about their assessment or want to review the full report they can visit B.C. Assessment’s website.

With files to Canadian Press

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