A surge of new residents to British Columbia is helping fuel an already hot real estate market.
According to new data from the B.C Government, the first three-quarters of 2021 saw more than 70,000 people move to the province from other parts of Canada.
Those new residents are helping fuel Vancouver Island’s red hot real estate market that saw a new record in Nanaimo for average sales price of single-detached homes.
A listing on Rock City Road now represents the average sales price of single detached homes in Nanaimo last month.
Listed just below a million dollars this four-bedroom, three-bathroom home is on a third of an acre. The listing agent says it’s priced right based on its rental income.
“If you put five or 10 percent down on a home like this home would rent for more than your monthly mortgage payment which just shows that with prices as high as they are it’s no cheaper to rent,” said Matt Scheibel with 460 Realty.
The single-detached homes that sold in Nanaimo last month averaged above a million dollars for the first time. The benchmark price also topped $800,000. The Vancouver Island Real Estate Board released the numbers last week.
The listing agent says demand in Nanaimo continues to be far stronger than the dwindling supply.
“It just keeps going down when you think it can’t go any lower. we’re now at the point where at the start of this month we had 50 single-family homes for sale in Nanaimo which is the lowest it’s ever been,” said Scheibel.
And that pent-up demand is being fuelled by migration.
B.C’s Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation minister said people across Canada are flooding into the province.
“Just in the first three-quarters of 2021 over 70,000 people have moved to British Columbia from other provinces. This marks the largest net migration in 28 years,” said Minister Ravi Kahlon. “It shows B.C. is the place to be.”
And for the next generation of Vancouver Islander’s trying to get into the market that’s adding a lot of pressure.
“It doesn’t surprise me but it almost makes us feel defeated and hopeless to ever own a home,” said Dustin St. Denis, who’s been tracking home prices.
Dustin St. Denis and his wife have been looking to buy for their family of four for two years but the market for them keeps getting bleaker.
“I hear if interest rates go up prices might drop but then again everyone wants to move to Vancouver Island it seems and it feels like there is no end in sight,” said St. Denis.
St. Denis says it’s a tough predicament for those who love living in the area but increasingly feel they can’t afford to live here.
Kendall Hanson
