Despite the winter market chill, prices grow across all housing types
The latest Royal LePage House Price Survey revealed that the aggregate price of a home in Kelowna grew by 9.6 per cent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2018, up to $632,477.
Breaking down by housing type, the median price of condo units increased 13.1% in the same timeframe, up to $411,827. Bungalows saw 12.1% growth (up to $636,279), while two-storey homes experienced a more modest 7.4% year-over-year rise (up to $714,357).
“Despite Kelowna experiencing its most severe winter weather in years, and with its prices dipping slightly quarter-over-quarter, home values are still up significantly on a year-over-year basis,” Royal LePage Kelowna managing broker and owner Francis Braam said. “We remain in a seller’s market in the condominium and bungalow segments, with more balance in the upper-end of the residential market.”
“The new regulations have caused a lot of uncertainty and concern for the market as a significant portion of prospective purchasers are from outside of Kelowna. It will be interesting to see what the taxes will look like and if the price increases continue as we enter the second half of the year,” Braam added.
Read more: B.C. prices sustain upward trend amid slower sales activity
On a national scale, residential prices experienced slower year-over-year increases in the first three months of 2018. On a quarter-over-quarter basis for the same period, home prices in many markets across the country remained relatively flat, with approximately half of the markets studied by Royal LePage posting slight declines.
“We are experiencing a broad-based, residential housing correction in Canada, triggered by federal and provincial intervention,” Royal LePage president and CEO Phil Soper said. “Strong house price gains in the first half of 2017 mask some of the recent market shifts when comparing year-over-year home value trends.”
“The combination of declining affordability and government intervention has for the most part neutralized very high home price appreciation levels in the greater Vancouver and Toronto regions, relative to the extreme heights witnessed in recent periods,” Soper explained. “However, the demand for housing is so strong that the rate of home price appreciation is expected to pick up again in the second half of 2018.”
