Trend is reflective of the influx of skilled young professionals in Canada’s largest cities
Regina’s housing market activity is largely sustained by immigration, along with having the second highest provincial credit rating in Canada, according to the Dominion Bond Rating Service.
This trend is feeding into the market’s rosy prospects, which will likely see further economic and commodities recovery with the opening of new potash mines in the region, Royal LePage Regina Realty managing partner Mike Duggleby said.
“Although stress tests and rate increases have resulted in some listings taking longer to sell, well-priced properties in good condition will go quickly,” Duggleby noted.
The latest Royal LePage House Price Survey indicated that the aggregate housing price in Regina contracted by 3.5% year-over-year during Q2 2019, reaching $321,122.
The aggregate value of two-storey homes fell the most, but with just a relatively minute 4.2% annual drop to $388,981. Meanwhile, bungalows had a 3.5% price decline to $293,631, and condos ticked up by 1% year-over-year to $227,542.
Royal LePage forecast that by the end of 2019, Regina’s aggregate home price will further decrease by 4.9% year-over-year.
The influence of immigration – particularly of millennials, who account for a vast majority of tech industry professionals – has been most keenly felt in the nation’s largest cities, according to RBC Economic Research.
“The number of millennials bidding farewell to Canada’s big cities pales in comparison to the number of their peers flocking in. In 2018, net immigration added a total of 76,300 young adults aged 20-34 to populations of Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal,” RBC stated earlier this year.
“In recent years, [these cities] welcomed approximately half of all new immigrants aged 20-34. We don’t see this share really weakening in the period ahead.”
