Is the luxury market picking up?
As Marko Juras reports, there’s been a series of high end sales in Victoria recently, with 8 sales over $2.5M in April, including one at $6.3M, one at $5M, and one at $4.4M. Two weeks does not make a trend, but on average we’ve seen 2 such sales ($4M+) a month the last two years, so we’re at least on pace for a pretty active month.
Luxury could be defined in many different ways, but one way is to look at it relative to the median price. This year for all single detached properties that median is $1.22M, and if we double it we would have a luxury cutoff at $2.44M. That’s about the top 6% of sales. One could argue it should be a higher cutoff, or set by region, but judging from the sales distribution I think it’s a decent level, roughly where the normal distribution of sales ends and that top tail begins.
Using that cutoff recomputed by year, the rate of luxury sales as a percentage of the total market has varied over the years.
The sharpest change was during COVID, when the luxury market went gangbusters, with sales quadrupling overnight in the summer of 2020 (fixed cutoff in this case).
Since then activity has died down somewhat. The drastic drop in sales after rates rose also hit the luxury market, with an average of 150 luxury sales in the last three years vs 266 in 2020 and 2021.
So is the market picking up again this year? Well it’s certainly true that luxury sales are up this year over last year to date, but it’s too early to say we’re on another tear here. The problem with a market where there’s few sales is that noise plays a big role. For example last May there were 6 sales over four million, followed by zero in June. At the same time, a chart showing year to date sales will show a smaller increase if this is trend just starting in the last few weeks. Something to keep an eye on for sure.
Interest from US buyers seems to be up, but will it translate into a sustained rate of higher sales? One source of data there is the VREB buyer origin survey which asks agents where a buyer is moving from (not necessarily getting at citizenship though). By that measure there’ve been a fairly steady 70 buyers a year since the introduction of the foreign buyers tax, with no spike during COVID (that surge came from Vancouver buyers, not international), but we won’t get updated data for 2025 until next year most likely. There’s also the provincial foreign buyers data which is more current, and counts those hit by the foreign buyers tax. No sign of an increase there, with every month below the reporting threshold of 5 buyers since the federal ban came in. If there’s going to be a spike in US buyers, they will need to have permanent residency or citizenship first.
Also the weekly market activity:
| April 2025 |
Apr
2024
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | Wk 2 | Wk 3 | Wk 4 | ||
| Sales | 116 | 264 | 679 | ||
| New Listings | 344 | 740 | 1620 | ||
| Active Listings | 3103 | 3228 | 3017 | ||
| Sales to New Listings | 34% | 36% | 42% | ||
| Sales YoY Change | +11% | +4% | +7% | ||
| New Lists YoY Change | -8% | 0% | +56% | ||
| Inventory YoY Change | +11% | +11% | +48% | ||
| Months of Inventory | 4.4 | ||||
The market is tracking last year’s activity very closely. Both sales and new lists are essentially the same as a year ago, with 11% more properties on the market.
For the time being, the increase in new listings activity seems to have calmed down, though it’s worth mentioning that last April new listings were already quite strong, with 1620 new listings putting us close to the 20 year high (1783 in 2010).
Rate news meanwhile is mixed. While the Bank of Canada is still expected to cut rates one or two times this year (if not this week), the bond market has been higher recently, pointing to higher fixed rates.
New post: https://househuntvictoria.ca/2025/04/22/how-to-value-garden-suites/
Not sure we have that stat…between 2 and 5% I would say, in the current marketplace.
Has investor confidence in condominiums softened?
According to Statistics Canada, two in five condo aparments in five provinces, including Ontario and British Columbia, were used as an investment property between 2016 and 2020.
The slowing rental market has also posed a concern as condo investors face higher costs from property tax and maintenance fees. While asking rents have decreased making it more difficult for landlords to break even.
For the downtown Victoria condo market , active listings are now at the highest level in a decade. Historically, May is the highest month for listings so I would expect active condo listing to go higher.
It may be time for investors to sell and reallocate their funds to other investments, like the stock market or high-growth regions like Alberta.
What approximate percentage of offers are unconditional?
No, penalty does not apply if you have conditions. The offers collapsing are pretty much all conditional. For the most part they are not unconditional offers collapsing on rescission.
Are the buyers walking away from their offers paying the penalty?
That’s because its not. Our entire local economy is tied to financing, insuring, building, buying and selling real estate. Even if they knew the rug would be pulled out tomorrow they would never tell you that…Never let them see you sweat!
Back in the mid-late 1990’s it was the government workers that could pull the local economy out of a recession…Not so much anymore. Today, pretty much everything local is tied to real estate, right down to the guy that mows the lawn.
Even the Foxy Box and the Love Den are indirectly tied to the local real estate industry.
Can’t really dispute inventory, sales, and new listings as those are black and white. Right now compared to last year there is higher inventory, significantly lower sales and slightly lower new listings. Not sure how anyone can see this as the market heating up.
Interesting. Seems like sales would end up around 580 if the trend holds.
Max , I hear u man , as the data comes out we are all going to read it differently. I c the stats and say not too bad and others will c a recession, too each they’re own
I think clean fresh drinking water is going to be a much better financial investment as apposed to real estate moving forward. Canada could make bank off fresh drinking water alone. Its a requirement for everything on the planet. We could harvest it in giant cisterns from ice melt and sell it on the global market.
Max, I think the U.S hasn’t done itself any favours but I don’t think Canada has done too badly , I myself think that we are walking back from the cliff imo
What about the damage that has already been done? Globally.
Buyers are flaky, with trump being handed his head , it would be wise for buyers to pony up right now . Tariffs are dead in the water and the U.S is starting to walk back on all their trash talk. Musk today said he’s bailing and going back to his old job , not sure if many will forget what he has said
Yes, I used an unconditional offer with a buyer over the weekend, we are doing an inspection tomorrow 🙂
Tail end of last two Aprils was quite strong. No real way to catch up this year. if anything we may fall further behind
So chances of those “unconditional offers” providing value for the buyer must be better now compared to before.
Yes, a lot of offers are going sideways on cold feet after acceptance. I have accepted offers right now where we lost out in multiple offers 1st time around – the successful offer walked away without doing any due diligence and then 2nd time around we went back with a lower offer than what my clients originally offered (and we’ve had it accepted).
In multiples right now very important to attempt to pick an offer that has the strongest chance of following through because if you pick wrong and they collapse good chance the other offers you had aren’t coming back or they are coming back lower.
Are you still seeing deals falling apart?
I am revising my projection from earlier this month of 650 sales to 630 sales for the month.
Leo, in your opinion does that mean that the difference is likely to be made up in the remaining days, or that there has been an overall decline in the pace of sales from last year?
I didn’t really consider the differences in easter timing before, but after last week we’re well below the year ago pace of sales.
Sales: 388 (down 17% from same time last year)
New lists: 1076 (down 3%)
Inventory: 3324 (up 12%)
Yes Maggie, that seems to be the future on how most urban first time and middle income homes will be built. But it will take a large investment in building a factory and having land developers commit to subdivisions of manufactured homes. There will be push back from traditional builders, municipalities, and lending institutions as what happens to any new(er) industry.
Interesting article in the Toronto Star about pre-fabricated homes. I didn’t realize that 90% of new housing in Sweden is built this way.
https://archive.ph/KVHGJ
We need the homeless!
https://youtube.com/shorts/pVGmzGB9fZ8?si=T8glsZEKjHAbtHKq
The US Treasuries continue to sell off. Look for 10y yield on the USTs to rise to 5% in the next few weeks. By association/correlation, Canada 5y yield is likely to rise to 3.5% in the next few weeks.
You wouldn’t need a real estate expert or psychic reader for that analysis. Just a calculator.
Groot, there is a real estate expert around every corner , I wouldn’t put too much stock in them. So not one of those boneheads never saw interest rates coming down , sheesh
Europe’s interest rates cut to 2.25%.
https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2025/apr/18/europes-interest-rates-cut-to-225/
This is bullshit. Tiff better shit or get off the pot!
The mortgage renewal cliff first gained attention around 2024 when analysts and financial institutions began warning about the large wave of renewals coming in 2025 and 2026. The concept was widley discussed by Canada’s banking regulator, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions.
So not your normal doomsayers.
What happened was there was seven consecuitve 25 basis interest rate cuts since then. So today the renewal cliff has been reassessed with many experts suggesting it will be less severe than intially feared.
https://www.mpamag.com/ca/mortgage-industry/industry-moves/mortgage-renewal-crisis-fading-and-presenting-opportunity-for-borrowers-brokers/520641
Lol, ya those folks , man talk about half baked losers . I stopped participating as they are such a sad lot in life , sad
Careful, you might trigger those people from that Vancouver Island housing fb group that are looking to buy your house for half off when you default on your mortgage.
The mortgage cliff was another nothing burger that was dreamt up by the doomsayers that really should get tired of losing all the time
Were they pre-cons? Do you think they’ll be able to close with these new astronomical interest rates?
Right… really sucks for the few trying to save an extra 25-35bps….. the most exposed were those on variable payments (going from mid 1%’s to over 6% in some circumstances) and that cliff has now passed. If that didn’t do much of a dent in the market in 2023/2024 then I don’t expect the fixed rate renewals to do much at all.
The renewal cliff WAS over rated, but most home owners have made changes in their lifestyles in preparation of the increased renewal payments. Fewer home owners are likely to be caught between a rock and a hard place at renewal than was once thought. However, that doesn’t mean that having that large amount of mortgages coming up for renewal will go unnoticed.
If you are just rolling your mortgage over it should be fine. But if you need to consolidate debts then for Federally regulated lenders it is likely you will need to qualify at a higher stress test level if changing lenders.
And there’s the rub.
A quick review of the downtown condo market with 22 new listings, 11 price decreases, six pending, and 8 sold properties in the last week.
Agents are still continuing to list, on average, 9 percent over the assessed value. While pending and completed sales are within one percent of assessed value. Historically, the difference between list and sale price is one or two percent. This mispricing is causing inventory to build with the number of downtown active listings hitting 220 units which is a decade high for listings.
No one is renewing at 4.4 right now unless the credit is bad. Most renewals are coming in at or below 4%. The renwal cliff is overrated just like that extension cliff during COVID. Fact of the matter is on average the wage gains since COVID are >10%, and the renwal rates are currently 1% below the stress test rate at the time.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) fall 2024 Residential Mortgage Industry Report estimates than 1.2 million mortgages wil come up for renewal in 2025 and 2026. That’s approximately 30% of all Canadian mortgages set to renew over the next two years. Roughly 60% of mortgages set to renew in 2025 and 2026 are fixed-rate. This wave of renewals follows years of climbing interest rates from historical lows in 2020. Mortgages that were in the 2 per cent range are now at the 4 to 4.5 range.
A $500,000 mortgage at 2.5 % would be a monthly payment of roughly $2,200. At 4.5% the payment could be as much as $2,800 per month. Of course every household will be different.
For those thinking of buying an investment property, such as a condominium, that could cause them to hold off from making a purchase. For current investors that may cause them to consider selling as the cash flow is reduced.
Since most people on this blog want to hear at least some good news. Historically, during periods of declining rates, delinquincy rates either stabilzed or fell, as borrowers faced less financial pressure. A similar trend could emerge if rates are reduced for 2025 and 2026.
For renters this could be some good news as more inventory should keep market prices soft for strata homes. If a renter is paying close to $2,800 a month for a two-bedroom then the spread between renting and ownership may be more in their favor. Depending on the down payment, it could be financially better to buy than to rent in Victoria.
re: Brentwood Bay. Garden Gate Dr and Torin Dr are what is being called “Garden Estates” here. It was developed in the late 90s and it’s mostly executive style acreages between 1 and 4 acres. Most homes are well over 3000 sqft. Serviced by CRD water (but not sewer which runs up Benvenuto), Fortis, Telus and Rogers/Shaw. Decent cell coverage. Some of the lots are strata title becaused they share a waste water septic system but other than that they are all freehold lots that aren’t in the ALR and are zoned RE-2 which allows ADUs like carriage houses that many owners have built out over the last few years. There are several multi-generation properties. There are some restrictive covenants, mostly around aesthetics like RVs and signs that you can see from the road most residents don’t pay much attention. The lots on the east end have hydro RoW easements. Some of the properties have farm status or did have farm status at one point in the past but the land is pretty hard to work as it is mostly on a slope and there is a lot of rock. The covenants also restrict what you can do as far as clearing trees and altering waterways beyond the environmental laws. The streets are wide with a sidewalk on one side. Most residents park their cars on their property so the streets are clean and clear. It is quiet except when the the CAF at Heal Lake are having a range day. There are some street lights but there is not much light pollution in general. There are two community mail boxes. Even though its nowhere near the city, it has decent transit with a few routes running down Benvenuto and Wallace. Oak Haven Park is on the northeast end. The properties that back onto it are generally the more expensive ones but there are some fancier ones on Torin as well. If you like the area but can’t afford it, the properties off Amwell on the other side of Benevenuto are a good family oriented neighbourhood. They are serviced by sewer too.
I would say so, but I also wouldn’t get emotionally involved if anyone disagreed. It’s got some okay businesses that you could walk to. I’ve never heard of anything called The Garden Estates, but if it’s the area I’m thinking of, it’s got nice houses, but it’s not particularly walkable. It would depend on what a buyer wanted out of life, where they’d need to commute to, etc. If I were retired, I’d prefer Brentwood Bay to Cordova Bay, but neither would be particularly objectionable. They both have abysmal bus service, if that matters (I’m guessing it doesn’t to most people). If I were moving to the peninsula, I’d pick Sidney.
Yes, Dean Park and Ardmore are actually in North Saanich, not Central Saanich. Dean Park, I always thought as of a northern Broadmead in many ways.
Would Brentwood Bay be the premier neighbourhood then in Central Saanich? The Garden Estates near Brentwood Bay and Butchart Gardens I think is rather upscale from what I hear but I am not familiar with it (haven’t even driven through it). Thoughts on that neighbourhood? I was speaking to a doctor and his family who were looking at houses in Uplands, Ten Mile Point . . . . .and the Garden Estates in Central Saanich.
Central Saanich seems okay to me in general, but I’ve never understood the appeal of Dean Park (which I think is actually in North Saanich). They have a “community association” that sounds like it’s as annoying as an aggressive strata council.
Nope
Ardmore is skewed as lot of houses are waterfront compared to oak bay. And yes Cordova bay is more desirable than central Saanich.
At a median price of $1,590,000 you pay more for a property in Cordova Bay than Dean Park at $1,330,000. And as we all know the more expensive the neighborhood then it must be more desirable.
Ardmore is more expensive at $1,800,000 which is on par with Oak Bay, but you get more house and land for your money. It’s also more exclusive as a lot fewer properties are ever on the market at any one time than Oak Bay.
If you have wealth and are not chained to the downtown core then Ardmore is an excellent place to live.
Better off in Cordova Bay for that circumstance.
Central Saanich does have features that the core and Westshore areas do not have. Two are access to the airport and the ferries. If you need to travel for work or just enjoy travel generally, proximity to the airport is a huge plus. Proximity to the ferries is also convenient if you travel to the mainland a lot. Yes, if you work Downtown or at UVic, it’s not a great choice but if you work from home and travel, places like Dean Park are definitely worth considering. Ardmore is really beautiful, too, if you have the budget for that.
I was born and raised in the prairies and couldn’t move to the Coast fast enough after university!
——
===——-
Agreed, and that’s good advice. Most people I’ve met like where they’re living and are proud of it. And they don’t want to hear visitors bashing it.
We considered Brentwood Bay and Dean Park for a bit, but the Pat Bay hwy congestion has just gotten worse for a decade and just wasn’t worth it. Still better than the west shore any day, but the waste of time to drive for everything didn’t make sense.
BC Sales down by almost 10 per cent.
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2025/04/14/bc-residential-unit-sales-down-almost-10-per-cent/
Walter, I agree most people luv where they live . If your born and raised in the prairies and such that’s home
Weyburn is one of the best places in North America for upland bird hunting. As with most of southern AB and SK, it is also a great place for waterfowl hunting.
There are a whole host of reasons to live in places other than Victoria. Just because it doesn’t speak to you doesn’t mean it doesn’t call out to other people.
Too far to downtown
What’s wrong with central Saanich?
Why is this even being discussed? Most readers here don’t even want to mess with the Westshore or central Saanich….
Caveat, “Not keen on investing in rental properties a continent away”… Have to agree, if I can’t touch it in an hour or two I don’t want to own it. Not bad or good, just my risk tolerance is very low. Interestingly, for me anyway, I’ve gone out on some fairly thin branches with local RE investment and that does not bother as much as say owning a condo might anywhere off the Island. Maybe it’s risk vs return and I can still touch these development properties.
Not keen on investing in rental properties a continent away. But kudos to those who can make it work.
Signed – One of the usual negative thinkers.
My son had to go to flin flon last month for a couple of days for hockey, 6 hour drive each way from Saskatoon, I gave him specific instructions that no matter how bad you felt the place was if anyone asks you say it’s good. The people were great to him and it was great learning experience for him to appreciate what he has in Victoria.
Haha…Moncton could not be that bad BobbyK. As I said, I would not want to live there myself.
Certainly it has changed and growth has taken place there. But it still has a shabby feel to it when I visited it in the winter.
The roads are horrible for example. (Major pot holes etc.)
One thing about it is that the people seem friendly. And investment is clearly taking place there now.
Costa Rica looks nice.
Maybe moving to Weyburn or Moncton was part of some sort of court ordered sentence?
I am positive minded, I’m positive I’d never buy an old run down house anywhere.
Interesting to see the usual negative thinkers who come out of the woodwork on que:)
The house I pointed to in Moncton has managed just fine to stay warm for close to one hundred years. The same as tens of thousands of other houses in those parts of Canada.
I lean towards positive minded people because they are the ones who do well in this world.
We own a similar type house in Moncton. Ours is a duplex. We bought it a few short years ago for Two hundred thousand dollars. It brings in $29,000.00 + / year after all expenses, including the property management fee. and taxes. (Mortgage free)
The renters pay the heat and lights.
The house is now worth double what we paid.
I could be wrong, but for our family, we feel that is ample profit for the amount we invested in the property…at least in my mind.
I post this for the positive minded people out there who are looking for ideas and who are considering alternative ideas.
For the past ten years I’ve had investors tell me that we should borrow money and invest in more real estate etc.
We haven’t done that because we are retired and have felt for years now that the world is heading towards sever instability.
It is no surprise to us what is happening to the USA right now. A multi polar world means major changes have to be made and people have been talking about this for the past twenty years at least.
We prefer to keep our heads down. Our kids generally think the same and act with caution.
Nevertheless, I’m impressed when people can think outside the box to get what they want.
In our office, we actually had two people who did this. Both were relatively low-level admin workers, but they wanted what they wanted and more importantly, made a plan and implemented it. One was quite entrepeneurial, bought a property in eastern Canada (might have even been Moncton), rented it out, then bought another one; last I heard, she owned 3 rentals and was then buying a place where she would herself move to on retirement. All over time on a very limited salary. The other one never said boo to anyone – one day at or past normal retirement age, she ups & leaves for Weyburn, Saskatchewan where she’s bought herself a house for I think $120k. No relatives or connections to the place, either.
Now, if it were me, I wouldn’t make any of those choices – in their circumstances, I think I’d have rather figured out some South American thing & learn a new language. Wouldn’t want to live in Moncton much less Weyburn. I’m just saying, these people who do things like this instead of whining and just voting for people to take money from others are kind of impressive.
That barn would cost $1000 a month to heat in the winter.
Looks a bit like an old rental house I lived in in Edmonton. The winter wind blew right through those thin walls.
https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/27957783/51-fleet-moncton?msockid=e407cfac1bd711f0b211b9530f0ad146
$237,000.00 Moncton NB…… for anyone interested in a change of scenery or who wants to get off the treadmill.
I would not want to live in Moncton myself, at this stage of my life…but if I felt like I could never own a home in Victoria BC, then I might be tempted to try something like this.
Or just rent it out.
Moncton is actually doing very well and has a lot to offer. It has changed a lot over the years.
(I swear I have no financial interest in this property. I am simply bringing it to the attention of others who might not be aware of the opportunities.)
My guess is that the location is not the best due to issues downtown…but thinking long term….I see a great future. (Think of how Fernwood area changed for example.)
No, there not. I give her all my money since she’s the Mother of my children, pays all the bills, and pretty much makes the entire household function. We hooked up when I was 17 years old, driving my 1972 dodge duster (with chrome mags), pioneer tape deck, blasting Metallica Master of puppets.
Patrick ,good stat and keep them coming as this is only the beginning and it’s starting to look like we are bouncing off the bottom . I guess in hindsight last year was the time to buy .
Don’t know all the details and don’t really care, I just need my tax dollars spent wisely. My main interest is what broad based government layoffs will do to the RE market in combination with what seems to be mortgage rates in the 3.5% to 4% range going forward. Like right now I am assuming that most ADMs and their direct reports will be gun shy about buying a house in the next little while?
Teranet has Victoria CMA up 2.2% for March (+1.6% not SA) , bucking the national trend which was down 0.4%.
That puts Victoria up 2.6% YOY and only down 5.9% from the May 2022 peak.
https://housepriceindex.ca/2025/04/march2025/
The correct term is ‘naval’ architect.
My father is navel architect, and former Yugoslavia was well known for ship building. In the 1980s my father had mentees from South Korea in his shipyard on an ongoing basis. There is a lot of know-how that goes into building a ferry. It would be like saying the Dash 8 is built in Canada so why don’t we build a wide-body plane too to compete with Boeing and Airbus. Not that simply.
Even a country like Croatia with know-how and lower labour costs than Canada can’t compete with South Korea and pretty much all the shipyards in Croatia went bankrupt as soon as government subsidizes were pulled.
They can quickly axe a few DMs and ADMs, they are the easiest to get rid of (appointed by cabinet). Next they can drop some non-union managers. Slowest to downsize would be union staff. Figure they are a year away minimum from any broad-based layoffs of union staff.
Folks counting on term employment being renewed likely to be SOL, though.
Vicre, I would agree that they didn’t throw Van or Toronto a rescue line. But I would say rates are low enough to get folks off the sidelines but really it’s trump that is in peoples heads . The general putz will move with the rest of the sheep when the coast is clear and prices are moving up. The summer might well be our spring market .
Skipping the rate cut definitely doesn’t help the spring market….
I must have either missed the current age 49 post or it was added after but yes you are correct. Max, its good for you too unless your finances are completely separate.
Economy can’t be doing too badly for the boc to skip an opportunity to cut rates. Seeing some sales in OB of homes that have sat for a while
That’s what she says too. I just smile and say…Good for you girl!
Nah she’s fine, she’ll have 35 years by 55 so she’ll be maxed out, even if all of her time was under the new rules (which it’s not). She’ll get unreduced at 55.
Could you imagine if you were in Wilki. You have just done 29 years in the clink. You think for sure you’ll be out at 55. New rules now…Another five years.
Well…60 it is.
Yeah, she’s starting get that part. I try not to get involved.
She won’t get the unreduced pension with the new rules, she’ll need to wait until she’s 60 or her years of service + age = 90.
My Wife has been with the provincial government since 1996. She’s looking at freedom 55. She’s 49 years young.
Early innings right now is what I’ve heard. Also this will happen at every ministry. Total layoffs will be in the hundreds.
Wholesale suppliers mark shit up 50%. They just don’t tell you that.
Working by the hour is for people that don’t know any better.
I’ve never worked for an hourly wage or set salary. Come to think of it, other than working summers (on commission), I’ve never worked for anyone. And I have hired employees, they wanted an hourly wage also.
Then you would think more would be willing to work for a percentage share of billables instead of hourly. I did have a staff member complain that another employee earned twice their wage, then I offered to put them percentage like the other employee and they turned it down. The staff member that work for percentage was about 3 times more productive than the hourly employee.
Here’s the news story to go with that:
https://www.biv.com/news/commentary/rob-shaw-gutted-org-chart-signals-deeper-bc-health-ministry-upheaval-10530626
Sounds like more of a leadership issue than broad based layoffs.
You are describing a PBR. Imagine how low rents are going to drop for a basement suite. If you sell a house with an unauthorized suite, you can be sued by the buyer if you don’t fill out the property disclosure statement properly. An in-law suite for example could be considered unauthorized, since it shares electrical wiring and plumbing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgXJ7x-5t5Y
Having an unauthorized basement suite in your principle residence is a dangerous game. It only takes one neighbour to rat you or the new buyer out. It could come back and bankrupt you if your Realtor doesn’t understand that.
Mid April and there are over 600 rental listings on Craigslist within an eight kilometer radius of downtown. That seems like a lot to me.
The lowest price purpose built apartment is at 1063 Foul Bay for a one-bedroom 640 square feet unit at $1,550 per month ($2.42 / sft.). It has been listed for 22 days. $2.50 a square is what I would expect for a one-bedroom suite in older building without in suite laundry.
A typical one-bedroom is about $1,775 per month. ($2.75 to $3.00 per square foot)
The lowest non junior size two-bedoom is for a older apartment on Shelbourne asking $1,995 per month for the last 22 days. That’s about $2.21 a square foot not including parking for 900 square feet.
The typical two-bedroom is around $2,475 per month. $2.75 to $3.00 a square for an older two-bedroom including parking seems reasonable.
I expect an increase in the number of listings by the end of the month and right into the summer. The vacancy rate seems to be increasing as it is taking longer to lease up the purpose built apartments.
Of course your experience will be different depending on where you price your suite and what kind of improvements you have done to it over the years.
I don’t know about smart or ruthless, seen a bunch of them try to apply at my work throughout my time and they were all fairly unqualified. LMAO apparently one of them kept getting rejected (like 5 times) and just couldn’t take the hint
What happened to self-sufficiency? Keep going down this road and soon you’ll be paying some hack to do your kid’s dental work instead of just watching a few youtube videos and doing it yourself.
I find the act of extracting weeds satisfying so I still do that myself at times…
Who is that? If you mean me, I was arguing against having government setting up for another “race to the bottom” subsidized industry. FWIW, I have been retired for years but I did spend about a year at Treasury board staff 40 years ago. It was an interesting place with some very smart (and somewhat ruthless) people but not one I would want to stay working at.
lol and here we have a government bureaucrat trying to defend these decisions.
Dad, today doesn’t matter how old you are , folks of all ages are talking a lot of crazy shite .
What the older generations might see as “laziness” is often a shift in priorities. The younger generation tend to be value efficiency, mental health, and flexibility in ways the older generation weren’t encouraged to.
Today’s generation are not lazy, they are more efficient in their work. What would have taken a boomer or Gen X days to do, can be done in far less time.
This is no different from Trump’s justification for tariffs and exact opposite of Economics 101. Every country should do more of what they do best and less of others.
There is a reason I buy bread from store or hire a plumber and not spend enormous amount of time doing it myself (unless you like doing it yourself). This helps me focus and spend more time where my skills can be useful.
None of this is simple. Treasury board staff spend a lot of time working on these sorts of issues. If it was as simple as comparing the bottom number on the invoices there would not be much debate. The problem comes when you start trying to figure out how much of the money stays in your economy (wages, profits to a Canadian company, spin off purchases to the rest of the supply chain etc.) This has to be factored against the economies of scale where building a one off (or one every 10 years) is very expensive. The world only needs so much ship building capacity so do we really want to compete on the world stage with the capacity we would need or do we want to give up on that segment of industrial capacity and look for something else to be competitive with (high tech, finance, etc.). Building shipyard capacity could well end up being a “race for the bottom” industry.
I doubt that a guy from Winnipeg who spends his days spewing old man thoughts and reporting the latest from BNN on a Victoria housing forum is doing much hiring either.
Well older folks are always telling their kids they will never afford a house and how hard they have it today , so not too surprised young people aren’t exactly motivated . Nothing like telling the younger generations they are losers
Not in a commercially viable way (not winning big private sector contracts), depends heavily on subsidies and government contracts. So, should BC ferry construction be apart of that subsidy? If so, how much more do want to pay for a ferry ride? Or how long do you want to wait to actually have a working ferry delivered?
Dad- You’ve obviously never hired anyone.
Green Party has been removed from the leaders debate.
CDN shipyards didn’t even bid……
Lol that mindset can’t even fix their own rotting fence.
Old men say this about every new generation.
We have these things already. The question is whether it’s worth the extra cost to build ferries here.
We can’t build anything, the new generations don’t want to work. They all want to make a quick buck online. That’s according to some teachers I’ve spoken to.
Well, shipyards require a heavy industrial capacity from smelting steel, big energy requirements, intermodal infrastructure, water front industrial sites, and skilled tradesmen. It’s really odd that someone who is against resource development, dams, new highways, more housing and major projects is lamenting the inability to build ferries here. Have a look in the mirror, folks with your mindset is the reason why it doesn’t happen.
Canadians in general are very lazy in general with horrible work ethic. A perfect example is the 35 hour work week for government employees.
It’s too bad we can’t/don’t want to build ferries in B.C. anymore.
B.C. Ferries’ four new major vessels will not be made in Canada
https://www.timescolonist.com/local-news/bc-ferries-four-new-major-vessels-will-not-be-made-in-canada-10529361
Rate hold, looks like no variable rates will be breaking below 4% until at least June.
I wonder where J.T. is relaxing now.
And you wonder why you get muted…
.
Canadians must be very rich. Too bad they spend most of their money in other countries. I bet the majority of those property owners were once “public servants “. I didn’t know servants got paid so well. How much of our budget goes to high paid government pensioners? Someone has to support their lifestyle, they did such valuable work for us for 30 years. They deserve to destress in warm, sunny places after such a gruelling career.
Fun fact… 90% of the homes in Arizona that are owned by foreigners are owned by Canadians. (Overall in the USA, about 20% of foreign owned homes are owned by Canadians).
https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/luxury-homes/canadians-sell-us-vacation-homes-propertie-3c3676e8
“ In Arizona, Canadians own almost 20,000 residential properties, accounting for more than 90% of the properties owned by foreigners in the state, according to an analysis of tax data by Zimbaluk, the agent with HomeSmart.”
Can’t disagree with you there. Nor would I ever advocate for going back to the other extreme of completely ignoring First Nations rights and concerns even if it was constitutional.
Not housing related, but this is an interesting interview with Andrew Coyne. The first half is about the upcoming election, and the second half is about the United States.
https://youtu.be/WKFhMbLy7Ko?si=6Nphx348drK6J4pj
I most definitely do not. All I was saying is that regardless of DRIPA, there would be a common law duty to consult. I’d be fine with repealing DRIPA and replacing it with a statute that does a better job of setting out the when/how/where/with whom to consult.
But there is no going back to the good old days when you could get away without consultation, and that is especially true for things like pipelines.
Sounds like you work in the “industry”. So I am probably not going to convince you. Most British Columbians support fair treaties and support reconciliation. But at the same time would be horrified if they knew the details of where the current government is driving the bus.
Yes and that plus some limited self government would be a good treaty.
The problem is NOT the land and cash handed over to first nations to settle claims. It’s when nebulous and overlapping consultation and consent obligations a re written into law and multiplied over our landbase. That and saddling first nations with governance models that are completely unworkable.
It’ll get worse before it gets better. Then there will be an over-reaction against bureaucrats and politicians sabotaging our economic future. I fear the over-reaction – that is part of what’s going on in the States and it has empowered some truly horrible human beings.
Maybe so, but repealing DRIPA doesn’t get rid of the duty to consult. There are many issues with DRIPA, but having a statutory framework governing consultation is better than having none.
Have you had any cause to deal with modern treaties? Finality is exactly what is lacking.
“As living agreements, these treaties do not freeze rights in time.”
Permitting time for natural resource projects have approximately doubled since DRIPA was adopted. The current government talks a good game on “fast-tracking” projects of economic importance but parts of government are full speed ahead on setting up more and more complicated notification and consultation processes.
That, and all those contract consultants that were former public servants, the excessive number of communications and PA folks.
Treaty ratification is Canada’s number one industry.
A claim settled by a whack of cash and a good chunk of land is a treaty, isn’t it? I actually like the modern day treaties because they give the First Nation a land base (held in fee simple), clarify who has jurisdiction over what, and set out clear consultation and notification requirements. There is also some finality and closure that comes with treaty ratification.
Micro DOGE at best/worst. Government says they are looking for $300M in savings on a $94.9 B budget. That’s a 0.3% cut.
Wouldn’t be surprised to see some non-core ministries absorbed back into other ministries. Saves a few $ getting rid of DMs and ADMs
They should have a citizen input process to this so Marko can suggest eliminating the homebuilder exam people.
My own modest suggestion for saving some $ would be to scale back BC Assessment so that properties were only assessed every two or three years like many places do.
Less modest but more impactful would be stopping DRIPA in its tracks. First Nations claims need to be settled with a whack of cash and a good chunk of land not by tying up the entire landbase of BC in an impenetrable mass of laws and treaties.
I wish we can do that all over downtown. Actually I would pay to have that happen and I am certain there will be many who agree.
I’m sure the door is open to doctors and nurses, unfortunately they don’t know what mess our healthcare system is in.
Will need it, like mentioned in my prior post, BC government DOGE layoffs officially kicked off.
Ya Canada would be wise to crack open the door to immigration. Anything that juices the economy is a good thing
If things keep heading down their current path (down south), and Canada adds any incentives to immigrate, I could easily see a decent chunk of well-off Americans heading north. It’s hard to tell what’s real these days, but it appears there’s a constitutional crisis going on.
Shipping citizens off to prison without due process?
Left wing americans are not having a good time right now, natural for those with resources to look elsewhere….
Perhaps you can explain why you’re fixated on Americans and not say immigrants from India or the Philippines?
There isn’t any point in stereotyping one group of migrants from another. Wealth has no nationality; personal sucess is determined by innovation, not geography.
Next msg
>> One source of data there is the VREB buyer origin survey which asks agents where a buyer is moving from (not necessarily getting at citizenship though
That’s why the vreb survey misses a lot imo.
e.g if a USA immigrant rents here for a few/many months and then buys, the vreb buyer survey would record them as a local buyer.
It takes about six+ months to get PR, and an immigrant is going to wait for PR before buying to avoid the FB tax.
Looks good , with trumps tariffs a fizzle the spring market is starting to take shape . With much lower interest rates there’s no reason sales and prices won’t take flight, fomo is alive and well
Nicely done analysis.
Using this same method it’s possible to drill down from a regional analyis to separate neighborhoods. For valuation purposes that allows one to determine if a property in a neighborhood is over built which may lead to an extended period to effectively market the property with the estimated market value of the property falling within a wider margin of error to that of a typical property.
In layman terms that’s when a new property is listed and sold for less than replacement cost. For someone about to do a home renovation with the intention to sell this can be important as they may not have access to enough financing to complete the renovation. Then the lender may force the owner to list their unfinished home for sale.
That’s what is happening to some home renovators today.
This was kind of hilarious. A great public facing interaction for a realtor in Ontario. I guess sales are getting tougher to find there..
https://www.ctvnews.ca/kitchener/article/realtor-fired-after-explosive-exchange-with-cambridge-resident/