An interesting idea – What is everyone talking about? How about New Condos… maybe not! It’s my opinion that we should be watching what is happening in the new build market. While everyone wants one, to live -in or for an investment, like all the other product in the market they aren’t selling as fast as they once did.
So question… what about all the condos that were purchased and will be completed soon? If those condos are for people who are currently renting and will move-in to them then when they are ready then will the rental market open up and rental prices soften? Same could happen if those units were purchased by investors planning to rent them out. If those homes are for people who already own a home and plan to sell that home to complete the new condo purchase, will more re-sale housing enter the market? Will there be a burden on those homes owners to lower prices if they are not selling in time to take possession of their new condo?
We should always be concerned with the supply pool of pre-sales, including the supply of strata homes “just completing”, vacant homes not in the supply pool (we won’t know about this), demand for pre-sales and from a rental investor stand point, the rental pool.
Released in March 13, 2019, you might have read the quarterly report put out by the Urban Development Institute titled State of the Market? LINK. According to this study of the last quarter of 2018, supply is three times what it was from the year before due to unsold stock. I caution people on reading articles because this one can be confusing. It talks about “Metro Vancouver” and about concrete buildings and wood-frame buildings separately and says that the steepest jump in inventory was not in the City of Vancouver. Then where was it? It was in other areas of metro Vancouver.
Some keen information for those who don’t know, Metro Vancouver includes 21 municipalities, a treaty first nation and an electoral area. It stretches out to include Maple Ridge, Langley, White Rock, Tsawwassen, Bowen Island and up to Lions Bay.
Tip: When reading any market statistic related article make sure you look closely at the dates and regions and the products they are talking about so you get a clear idea of the facts.
Real Estate with Colleen Shorter 