Perhaps it is a result of the continued increase in house prices in Metro Vancouver. Perhaps it is due to low mortgage rates and the perception that rural prices have hit bottom. Whatever the reasons, the recreational property market in British Columbia is looking better this spring than it has in seven years.
British Columbia is forecast to have Canada’s biggest jump in housing resales in 2014, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association and much of that action is being seen in B.C.’s traditional vacation markets.
In March, sales of homes in the Kootenays were up 53.8% from March of 2013, the second biggest increase of any region in B.C. Sales soared 21.4% on Vancouver Island north of Victoria and shot up 26.8% in the central Okanagan and a startling 59% in the southern Okanagan.
Despite the higher sales, prices of recreational property remain a bargain, realtors say, especially when compared with the average price of a Vancouver bungalow, now pegged at more than $1 million.
“This March was the busiest I have seen in almost six years,” said Li Read of Sea to Sky Premier Properties (Salt Spring), a veteran who knows the Gulf Island market well. “I think 2014 will be the year of total recovery in the secondary home marketplace. We're just at the beginning of the shift into better times.”
Read points to a classic oceanfront cottage on Saltspring Island in an area of upscale homes, that comes complete with dock and a sunny southwest exposure. It is listed at $685,000, or about half of what it may have sold for six years ago.
On Hornby Island, Coast Realty Ltd. has listed a two-bedroom waterfront cottage with a walk-on beach and a large yard. It is on for $499,000.
On Sidney Island, off the southern tip of Vancouver Island, LandQuest Realty president Richard Osborne is offering 1.3 acres of sandy waterfront lots for sale starting at $179,000. “Sidney Island lots like this were selling seven years ago for $250,000,” Osborne said.
