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Selling a luxury home in Edmonton is often an exercise in patience. The city may be among the nation’s most affordable resale real estate markets, and luxury is no exception, says realtor Ron Dickson, senior vice-president of sales with Sotheby’s International Realty.
Yet it’s by no means a brisk market for high-end homes.
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“We are seeing activity (in luxury); we’re just not seeing the activity that other major markets are seeing,” he says, referring to Sotheby’s recently released Top-Tier Real Estate: Spring 2024 State of Luxury Report, tracking luxury resales in Canada’s largest cities.
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The report points to a recovery in sales in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal with Calgary, again, expected to lead the nation for percentage sales growth.
“Single-family homes are a scarce commodity, and that’s why we’ve seen a big uptick year over year in places like Calgary,” says Don Kottick, president and chief executive officer of Sotheby’s International Realty Canada, in reference to Calgary luxury sales.
In the first three months of the year, Calgary saw 441 sales over $1 million, an increase of 63 per cent, the report states.
Notably, the study even mentions Edmonton briefly when referencing Alberta’s economy drawing migrants from larger cities.
Still Edmonton’s high-end market remains more sluggish than Calgary’s.
Realtors Association of Edmonton statistics show 14 sales of $1 million or more in the first three months 2024, down from 30 transactions in the same period last year.
The activity reflects how luxury sellers must be patient, Dickson says, adding he often reassures clients “they’re not being picked on, and not the only ones not getting a sale right away.”
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That said, the capital city is getting more attention from out-of-town buyers because, like Calgary, buyers’ dollars here purchase more luxury home. The Sotheby’s report alludes to this, given that it considers luxury home sales in Toronto and Vancouver starting at $4 million versus $1 million in Calgary.
And Edmonton’s luxury market is even more on sale than Calgary’s, Dickson notes.
“There are simply great deals with homes for sale that couldn’t be built for the price.”
Even for less than $1 million, Edmonton buyers are purchasing what would be considered luxury in larger cities, he adds.
Edmonton buyers, it seems, recognize the deal. RAE statistics for the first three months of the year show 883 sales in the $500,000 to $999,999 price range, an increase of 87 per cent from the same period last year.
And the $750,000 to $999,999 price segment for single-family detached homes experienced even stronger growth, up 98 per cent year over year.
“Single-family homes in that price range are just flying right now,” Dickson says.
Arguably, buyers are getting luxury in the under $1-million price range in Edmonton too. One recent listing in Blue Quill, for example, was a newly renovated, single-family detached home priced at $800,000 encompassing 2,348 square feet, including five bedrooms, four bathrooms, two ponds in the backyard and an outdoor hot-tub. By comparison, a similar sized home in Vancouver lists for about $2 million, and it’s a duplex.
Although selling a $1-million or more home can be a slog in the busy spring market, the luxury segment often heats up with the weather, Dickson says.
“Every year, luxury properties seem to sell in June, July and August.”
One reason is many move-up buyers from the active segment below $1 million are only able to make the jump to luxury after selling their home in the spring, Dickson explains. “So, for that reason, luxury sales in Edmonton really pick up in the summer months when other segments cool off.”
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
MONTREAL – The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers says Montreal-area home sales rose 9.3 per cent in August compared with the same month last year, with levels slightly higher than the historical average for this time of year.
The association says home sales in the region totalled 2,991 for the month, up from 2,737 in August 2023.
The median price for all housing types was up year-over-year, led by a six per cent increase for the price of a plex at $763,000 last month.
The median price for a single-family home rose 5.2 per cent to $590,000 and the median price for a condominium rose 4.4 per cent to $407,100.
QPAREB market analysis director Charles Brant says the strength of the Montreal resale market contrasts with declines in many other Canadian cities struggling with higher levels of household debt, lower savings and diminishing purchasing power.
Active listings for August jumped 18 per cent compared with a year earlier to 17,200, while new listings rose 1.7 per cent to 4,840.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2024.
