Well what a year it has been... yet again. We have seen a continued shortage of properties for sale with an abundance of buyers which has resulted in many multiple offers on homes listed for sale. On the graphs below we have added the average % changes for the whole year so you can see that there has been a 30% increase in sales but a 37% decrease (50% in Parksville/Qualicum) of active listings of single family homes. This has been the main driving force which has seen prices rise approximately 30% in the Nanaimo-Parksville/Qualicum region when compared to the previous year.
In both areas the number of sales peaked in March and that was also the month we saw the most properties get listed for sale. December was the month we saw the least amount of sales and new listings for both areas although December and January are historically quieter months.
So will this change, unfortunately I cannot see it happening in the short term. We need more homes to be available and this can only come from new construction or resale of existing homes. For new homes to be built the current process to get permits and/or rezoning takes so long it is unlikely to have any affect so drastically requires streamlining at all levels of government. With resales this will not really make any difference unless the seller is leaving the housing market and not purchasing a new home. We have also seen 401,000 new permanent residence permits issued in 2021, which is the highest number since 1913, so although Canada has reached its immigration target, its housing policy leaves much to be desired. Recently there has also been talk of a new tax on $1m+ homes but is another tax the answer? We have seen how incredibly unsuccessful the speculation and foreign buyers tax has been on improving the housing market so in reality this is just going to be another revenue source.
Phil Soper, Royal LePage's President and CEO made the following observations about the current Canadian real estate market:
“The lack of housing supply in Canada is a very real issue; one that cannot be solved overnight. While some believe that housing is now overvalued, signals point to a level of demand that will continue to outpace inventory, keeping prices rising on a steep upward trajectory, That said, I do expect to see price appreciation ease from the unhealthy levels that we have been grappling with over the last 18 months.” (The full Royal LePage media release can be found at https://www.royallepage.ca/en/realestate/news/royal-lepage-canadas-national-aggregate-home-price-forecast-to-rise-10-5-by-the-end-of-2022/ although this is Canada wide and not specific to Vancouver Island.)
Real Estate Statistics
The graphs below show the median sold price, sold numbers and number of new listings since the beginning of each year (freehold homes only.)
Median Sold Price:
Sold Numbers:
Number of new listings:
The following graphs shows the % difference of the housing price index (HPI) from the same month 12 months ago. It is split into the different sub-areas (the overall figure for Nanaimo is on the left of the graph) and is for single family homes.
The following graphs are for Nanaimo and show the sales numbers against new listings and sales numbers against total active listings. This is helpful to show how the market is doing as the closer the 2 lines come together on each graph generally indicates a busy active market.
The following graph is for Nanaimo and shows the months of inventory. This is the time it would take the current freehold, single family homes for sale, to sell, if no new homes were listed, which indicates whether we have a sellers, balanced or buyers’ market.
These figures do concentrate on single family homes but if you would like similar information for other property types, such as apartments or patio homes, or specific geographical areas of Nanaimo or Parksville/Qualicum, then I would be more than happy to discuss those with you as well.
As always I hope you find these monthly newsletters informative and if at any time you or any of your friends, relatives or co-workers are looking for a professional realtor to help them buy or sell a home, or just have a real estate question, please call my personal cell, 250-739-1228, or drop me an email.
Thank you and may you all have a happy and healthy 2022,
Ian
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