North of the Fraser Residential Real Estate: October 2020 Infographic
The October stats are in from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver and despite the persistence of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the resale residential market continues to march ahead posting nearly historic sales volumes for the month. October 2020 saw 3,687 detached, townhouse and apartment sales which is the second highest total on record for the month. October 2020’s sales were 29% higher than the same month last year and 34.7% above the 10-year October sales average.
New listings continue to cycle through the market as 5,571 homes were listed in October., This is 36.7% more than the same period last year, but slightly less than the 6,402 homes listed in September of 2020.
Despite the substantial increase in new listings, the sales to active listings ratio for all product types is now 29.7%, the highest ratio for October since 2017 when it was 33.1%. Its worth noting that the ratios for this October are more balanced across all product types (i.e. 30.9% for detached homes, 43.5% for townhouses and 24.9% for condos) than in October 2017, when the overall ratio was bolstered by high demand for townhomes (44.8%) and condos (66%) with single family homes coming in at just 16.8%. This balance is also seen in the average days on market, as all product types are selling in approximately a month.
Benchmark prices continued a general upward or steady trend depending on product type. Detached homes increased by 1.1% month-over-month, while townhouses were up 0.4% and condos remained unchanged over September.
So What Does This Mean For The Development Land Market North Of The Fraser?
The resilience of the resale market throughout the pandemic has undoubtedly helped bolster optimism in the development community, however the residential land market has not necessarily kept pace with the brisk residential market in all areas. In our core markets north of the Fraser, deals are coming together in certain sectors, particularly for single family and townhouse sites, but demand remains tepid and bid prices remains low for higher density options. This is likely a short-term dynamic as there are a number of factors that will drive housing demand (and therefore demand for development land) in Greater Vancouver over the next several years. The most notable of these factors is the historically low interest rates and a commitment on behalf of the Federal Government to welcome nearly 1,200,000 new immigrants to Canada over the next three years, many of whom will call Greater Vancouver home. These important drivers of demand combined with the prospect of a COVID-19 vaccine looking more realistic all the time, the road to recovery looks brighter as we close out 2020 and head towards 2021.
Please note: areas covered by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver include: Whistler, Sunshine Coast, Squamish, West Vancouver, North Vancouver, Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, Richmond, Port Moody, Port Coquitlam, Coquitlam, Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge, and South Delta.
View the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver’s entire stats package for October 2020 here.
This representation is based in whole or in part on data generated by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver which assumes no responsibility for its accuracy.
