Mansion sales surge 240% in Vancouver, Canada's hottest market
BNN Bloomberg
Even the ultra-wealthy are finding they’re not immune to Canada’s housing shortage, and nowhere is that truer than in the country’s most expensive major market, Vancouver.
Even the ultra-wealthy are finding they’re not immune to Canada’s housing shortage, and nowhere is that truer than in the country’s most expensive major market, Vancouver.
Luxury real estate in the city broke local records last year, with sales of mansions priced over $10 million growing 240 per cent, faster than anywhere else in Canada, according to a report Wednesday by Sotheby’s International. Toronto wasn’t far behind with 238 per cent growth.
Those transactions included the highest price ever paid for a single-family Vancouver home. Sotheby’s wouldn’t say how much the property, known as Belmont Estate, went for, but CTV News cited a price of $42 million.
High-end real estate has been buoyed by the same pandemic-led forces that have made Canada’s overall housing market one of the hottest in the world: low interest rates and high interest in living spaces. Demand for luxury housing has been juiced even further by the surging stock market, making many rich Canadians richer.
But Canada hasn’t built enough houses, big or small, in recent years to keep up with this surging demand or with population growth. The number of properties listed for sale nationally has plunged to a record low. In Vancouver, about 5,000 homes were for sale at the end of last year, the fewest in data going back 30 years.
In the luxury segment, houses worth $10 million or more are staying on the market for a shorter time, weeks rather than months, said Kevin O’Toole, managing broker at Sotheby’s in Vancouver.
