Q4-2017 “State of the Market” UDI Report

UDI Pacific’s ‘State of the Market’ quarterly publication for Q4-2017 is now available.

The below is from a February 27, 2018 press release from UDI which can be seen in its entirety hereView the report in its entirety here.

MARGINAL 4Q 2017 IMPROVEMENT IN HOUSING SUPPLY: VANCOUVER HAD ONE MORE TOWNHOME!

VANCOUVER, BC —For those who want to live in outer Metro Vancouver, areas such as Langley or Surrey, the fourth quarter State of the Market 2017 report offered some modest relief with 23 new townhomes and 14 apartments available to buy and ready to move in. If Vancouver is your preferred location, your choices only included a pair of townhomes at $1M to $1.3M, plus one apartment. That’s up by one more Vancouver townhome than last quarter. The housing shortage and years of supply deficits are verified by this latest report, prepared by the independent group, Urban Analytics.

The federal government’s Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) recently identified the “weak” supply response in Vancouver as a critical driver of housing affordability issues in the region.

Across Metro Vancouver, from West Vancouver to Maple Ridge and in between, the report found just 80 new move-in ready units were available to purchase, confirms Michael Ferreira, Managing Principal of Urban Analytics. This is a decrease of 95% from the 5-year average of 1,776 move in ready units.

The total of new, unsold multi-family homes for purchase across Metro, including presale, under construction and move-in ready apartments and townhomes, increased slightly from last quarter’s 1,813 units to 2,554 units. However, this is still down 74% from the Q2 2013 peak of 9,858 units. This and other housing supply stats are found in the independent report, which tracks quarterly population growth with new home sales, prices and supply. Ferreira added “about 92% of all apartments and townhomes were presold in 2017.”

UDI President & CEO Anne McMullin said the numbers speak for themselves. “While pointing the finger at foreign buyers gains public support, the biggest obstacles are still municipal permitting delay bottlenecks, which can take years, and restrictive, single-family zoning, on about 85% of residential land across Metro.”

“Critics will jump onto a real estate website today and see plenty of listings, but that supply includes older units (resales), assignments and presale units that aren’t even built yet meaning they’re not move-in ready,” McMullin added. “The BC Budget announced last week is also predicting a 27% decline in housing starts this year. How do all the new taxes and housing supply reductions really help house the 30,000 new, annual lower mainland residents?”

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