Overseas buyers and strata owners seeking detached properties are continuing to drive up prices for Vancouver’s detached homes, according to the Royal LePage House Price Survey and Market Survey Forecast released this morning.
“Vancouver was a condo market a few years ago, but now more people are moving into houses,” Bill Binnie, broker and owner of Royal LePage North Shore, said in a press release.
“Family-oriented condo owners are looking for more space. Nearly 10% of the market moved from strata properties to detached homes in May 2011, but only 5% moved from a house to a condo during that same period.”
The survey incorporates Vancouver West Side, Vancouver East Side, North Vancouver and West Vancouver into the umbrella term “Vancouver.”
It found that Vancouver’s detached bungalows are the most expensive in the country, rising to 14.1% year over year for an average second quarter price of $1,033,000 in 2011.
It also found that standard two-storey homes have increased 12% to an average second-quarter price of $1,114,500 and that standard condos have increased 2.5% to an average second-quarter price of $499,250.
The survey also found that year-to-date unit sales are up slightly compared with last year and the number of active listings is down approximately 15%. Multiple offers, it found, are common on “well-priced” single-family properties. The survey found that single-family homes are out-performing condos, both in the numbers of sales and price increases.
A Royal LePage spokesman was not available by press deadline.
For the first quarter of the year, Royal LePage assessed that low interest rates and overseas buyers were the strongest factors driving up local home prices.
(See: “Low interest rates, overseas buyers drive up Vancouver housing prices” – BIV Business Today, April 12.)
Jenny Wagler
Twitter: JennyWagler_BIV