Vancouver Real Estate Market starts 2011 with Bidding Wars
– January 25, 2011
While some parts of Canada have seen their real estate markets continue to feel a winter chill as they started 2011, things appear to be heating up in Vancouver, BC.
After ringing in the New Year, January has surprised even many long time industry professionals with a raft of multiple offer scenarios in many parts of the city. You do not have to look hard to find some of these sales.
Vancouver realtor Stu Bell said that on January 19, 2011 there were, “84 New Listings and 46 Sales in Vancouver West, West Vancouver and North Vancouver. Seven homes sold for over asking. One sold for $220,000 over the asking price.”
This means that almost 15% of the homes sold on that day were all above the asking price in those areas.
On January 21, 2011 News 1130 reported, “One house near 20th and Laurel has just sold for over $500,000 the asking price,” on Vancouver’s Westside.
Listing agent Nick Calageros says the response to the listing was a little surprising, especially since the house is a tear-down. “About 200 people came through the open house. I mean there was a lineup down the stairs, down the walkway, onto the sidewalk and around the corner.’The original asking price for the 20th and Laurel property in South Cambie was $1,088,000. That sale represented almost a 50% markup from the asking price.
He says the owners got thirty offers the next day and the house sold for $1,611,000.
Global TV reported that the following week another home across the street sold for $1,350,000. Again there were multiple offers and again it sold for above asking price. In this case $262,000 or 24% above the asking price.
So what could be driving this?
The Globe and Mail previously reported:
It might be unbelievable to Vancouverites who’ve long been priced out of the high-end market, but to newly wealthy Chinese, Vancouver is still relatively cheap.The Chinese influence on Vancouver real estate has been a huge factor in the substantial home values increases since the turn of the new millennium. However, in the past 6-8 months the number of Chinese home buyers coming from mainland China and Hong Kong has intensified and boosted some home prices by up to 50% in the past 2 years, with their focus being on Richmond, Vancouver’s Westside, and now West Vancouver.
“Many wealthy Chinese believe property is the safest way for investment, and the properties in Vancouver are not particularly expensive compared to the price in major cities in China, such as Shanghai or Beijing,” said Mr. Vincent Chen of Visas Consulting Group, one of the largest immigration consulting firms in China.
Chen says more than 3,000 Chinese families migrate to Canada under the business category every year.
The average detached home price in Vancouver’s West Side is $1,698,925, up 46% in two years from the January 2009 figure of $1,165,007. There have been many cases of homes in communities such as Point Grey, Kitsilano, Dunbar, and Shaughnessy listing and selling within days for $300,000 or 25% over asking price in some multiple offer scenarios.
