The overall value of real estate in Metro Vancouver has seen a significant nosedive with the advent of extremely tight policies such as school and speculation taxes, according to a recent analysis by non-partisan group STEPUP Now.
The study estimated that on average, each home in Vancouver suffered a loss of $153,873 in value. Said declines have led to as much as $90 billion in losses throughout the region.
Paul Sullivan, senior partner with Burgess, Cawley, Sullivan and Associates Ltd., stated that of the Metro area’s markets, the worst hit by this trend were West Vancouver (with 14.68% loss in value) and Vancouver (13%).
Sullivan, who collated the data for STEPUP Now, said that these trends should be a wake-up call for provincial authorities to begin reconsidering the misguided legislation governing real estate in B.C.
“While the government’s goal may indeed be to bottom out the housing market in an attempt to somehow address the complex issue of affordability, they are simply removing billions of dollars from the B.C. economy, to everyone’s detriment,” he told CTV News Vancouver.
Feeble activity continued to characterize the regional market, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.
Overall sales fell by 29.1% annually in April, down to 1,829 transactions. This is despite a gain of 5.9% from the 1,727 deals in March.
The region’s inventory saw the addition of 5,742 new for-sale listings last month, up by 16% from the 4,949 new listings in March. Overall supply in Greater Vancouver was 14,357 homes for sale, around 46% greater than the supply seen on April 2018.
Ephraim is currently a journalist at Mortgage Broker News, Real Estate Professional and Canadian Real Estate Wealth.
Ephraim is a highly accomplished news reporter whose work has been published across North America and the Asia Pacific region. Before joining Key Media, Ephraim spent eight years working as a journalist with Reuters TV. His areas of expertise include real estate, mortgage, and finance.
LinkedIn | Email
