Here's how minimum down payments for homes in B.C. have changed during the pandemic
BNN Bloomberg
Residents in British Columbia are facing the highest average property prices in Canada and according to a report by Zoocasa, the minimum down payment for a detached house and condo has increased in every municipality since the beginning of the pandemic.
A report released Thursday calculated the minimum down payment needed based on five per cent for a home valued at $500,000 and under, 10 per cent for homes $500,001 to $999,999, and 20 per cent for homes priced at $1 million and over.
Out of the 18 B.C. municipalities Zoocasa tracked, the down payment needed to buy an average detached home increased by over $100,000 in 10 markets.
It found that the largest down payment increase since February 2020 was in Surrey, B.C., where benchmark home prices increased 39 per cent to $1,390,300 from 2020. Homebuyers now need to put down an average of $278,060 to buy a property in Surrey, versus $74,790 pre-pandemic.
