Developers take note: Canadians increasingly want homes large enough to house several generations.
According to a June 8 Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC survey of its professionals across Canada and the U.S., realtors in both markets reported that in the past year more home buyers are looking for properties that can accommodate more than one generation.
“The main reason is financial,” said Coldwell Banker Canada president John Geha, who Business in Vancouver caught up with late June 8.
“The second reason would be that it’s traditional. Canada is a very international country, and in a lot of countries around the world, this is normal.”
Originally from the U.S., Geha is visiting Vancouver from Toronto.
He said the trend toward having baby-boomer parents or even grandparents live together is more pronounced in cities like Vancouver because its real estate prices are comparatively high.
“The average sale price of a home in Vancouver is $644,000,” Geha said. “The average price across Canada is $329,000. So, Vancouver is literally at a point of being double the average price in Canada.”
When Coldwell Banker CEO Jim Gillespie was in Vancouver on April 9, (“Price for average detached home in Metro Vancouver hits $1 million” –issue 1069; April 20-26), he hinted that Vancouver real estate prices may have inflated too far too fast.
“If you have prices continuing to do double-digit appreciation year in and year out, that’s not sustainable,” Gillespie said.
Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver statistics show that the price of detached homes across Metro Vancouver rose an average of 12.3% in each of the past nine years.