Is there an investment asset that can produce a 366 percent return in a three-decade span? Yes, it is the housing property in Canada. Is there an investment asset that can beat this performance? Yes, it is the property in Greater Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. Indeed, Greater Vancouver has proven to be one of the real estate investment hotspots, given its appeal as an investment market that boasts natural beauty, strong economic and demographic fundamentals, and financial stability, which ensures optimal yield for a low level of investment risk.
Property prices in Greater Vancouver, BC, have risen by some 473.7 percent in the period between 1980 and 2009, yielding, on average, a spectacular 17 percent per annum over the noted period. In other words, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) and RE/MAX Canada, the average price of residential property in Greater Vancouver in 1980 was slightly over $100,000. Today, that same property is worth, on average, somewhat more than $574,000.
The noted return on investment looks incredibly attractive, given the low risk associated with residential property investments. Investments in residential real estate in Greater Vancouver have been characterized by exceptional stability. The average price of a house in Greater Vancouver dipped seven times in the past 30 years. Most of the dips occurred in the late 1990s. However, all declines in average prices of homes in Greater Vancouver have been exceptionally mild, with the largest annual decreases not exceeding 3.5 percent.
This performance of real estate investments in Greater Vancouver looks remarkable compared to the implementation of property investments in the Canadian housing market as a whole or performance of investments in most other regional real estate markets in Canada. As noted earlier, the average price of a property in Canada has risen by 366 percent between 1980 and 2009. This translates into an average annual return of 13 percent in the same period. Only Victoria, Regina, Toronto, and Ottawa have recorded returns higher than this average for Canada as a whole. Victoria, located in British Columbia, has the second-highest return on residential real estate investments in the Canadian property market. An investment in Victoria’s housing property has returned 448.5 percent in total return, or 16 percent on average each year between 1980 and 2009. This makes British Columbia the best performing regional property market in Canada.
On the other hand, taking an international investment perspective, even less robust, would have been investment returns on U.S. real estate. Based on the average values of homes in the United States between 1980 and 2009 (using the Freddie Mac Conventional Home Price Index), an investment of $100,000 in residential properties in the United States in 1980 would be worth $382,576 today. This would represent a total return, measured by the increase in home prices, of 283 percent over the noted period. In other words, an investment in the real estate market in the United States would have produced an average nominal yield of 10 percent per annum, which is much lower than that earned on the property investment in Greater Vancouver.
Investments in residential real estate in the Greater Vancouver area look exceptionally appealing, given their outstanding performance relative to property investments in other regions of Canada and the U.S. real estate market. Therefore, investing in Greater Vancouver’s property market can represent an investment choice that promises high yield for a low level of investment risk.
