Sales success at Richmond’s River Green project helped push the average Metro Vancouver home price up 13.4% between March 2010 and March 2011.
Magnum Projects Ltd. owner George Wong told Business in Vancouver April 15 that nearly 300 of the 458 units in the project’s Phase 1 have been sold.
That includes nine suites priced above $3 million and nearly 30 units in the $2 million to $3 million range. Wong’s firm has so far sold more than $270 million worth of real estate at River Green.
He estimated the average price for units in that riverfront development ($935,000) is far above the average price of a Richmond home.
The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) reported sales figures for communities across B.C. on April 18.
The BCREA did not break prices out for Richmond, but it noted the price of a Metro Vancouver home jumped 13.4% to $786,311 between March 2010 and March 2011.
Fraser Valley homes jumped 15.5% during that same period. Overall, B.C. real estate prices rose 14.9% in the year that ended March 2011.
Chilliwack is increasingly the most affordable community in B.C. with its real estate prices sliding 11.9% to 281,874.
Much publicity has recently centred around the phenomenon of Asian buyers snapping up local real estate. But Wong, who is also marketing projects in Vancouver, Coquitlam and the Fraser Valley, said much of his success in Richmond has come from locals.
“Almost half of the buyers for River Green are from the west side of Vancouver. Many are long term Vancouver residents,” he said.