REAL ESTATE

REAL ESTATE Buyers’ fatigue linked to “moderating” market

by Carlito Pablo

On July 19, this gated Vancouver mansion with a grand foyer at 4788 Belmont Avenue—up the hill from Spanish Banks—was listed on the market with a hefty price tag of $33,888,000.

Earlier this year, Vancouver realtor Adam Chahl talked about the frustrations of buyers in the hot housing market. in the housing market, with fewer buyers ready to engage in bidding wars,” Statistics Canada stated in a report dated July 21, 2021. Last June, the Straight wrote about a Dex-

Chahl’s client at the time had lost in a bidding war, wherein a total of 42 buyers submitted offers for a detached home in Burnaby.

The property sold for $1,715,000, which was $216,000 over its listed price.

“I wonder if we’re going to see almost a buyer’s fatigue set in, where people say, ‘You know what? Forget it. We’re not going to shop anymore. We’re just going to wait and see what’s going to happen till things calm down,’” Chahl told the Straight in a phone interview in March.

Chahl knew what he was talking about.

A recent report notes that real-estate markets across Canada are showing “signs of moderating nationally”.

Guess what one of the factors is behind the decline?

“The current market slowdown, partly due to buyer fatigue, has started to manifest ter Realty report, which stated that the easing of restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic will cause attention to “wane from real estate over the next two months”. It looks like that’s also on point. “As well, the desire to buy a home could start subsiding as pandemic measures are lifted and many workers return to offices,” Statistics Canada stated. The federal agency noted that although the country’s housing market “remains near record-high sales levels, signs of moderation have begun to appear over the past few months”. Citing the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), Statistics Canada noted that sales activity was down 92 percent in all local markets in June 2021 on a monthover-month basis. In a mid-July report, the CREA observed that national home sales fellby 8.4 percent on a month-over-month basis in June.

The decline marks the “third straight monthly slowdown since activity hit an alltime record back in March”, the CREA noted.

These trends are reflected in B.C.

The B.C. Real Estate Association has reported that sales and prices across the province dropped for the third month in June after the market peaked in March 2021.

In its July 21, 2021 report, Statistics Canada projected that home prices may see more declines.

“Further decreases in home prices may be observed in the fall if the number of sales continues to decrease faster than available listings,” the agency noted.

In another sign of the market slowing down, Statistics Canada noted a 0.7 percent drop in new home listings in June 2021.

This “marked the third consecutive decrease in new listings nationally, with declines in half of all local markets”.

The growth in the price of newly constructed homes also slowed for a second month in a row in June.

The price of new homes rose by 0.6 percent in June, representing the “smallest increase in six months”.

The good news?

“Despite the month-over-month deceleration in new house price increases, year-over-year gains remained near record highs (+11.9%) in June,” Statistics Canada reported. g

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