Kelowna’s sky-high real estate market may be old news for people who live in the area, but it’s been named one of the top three emerging real estate markets in a report released on Tuesday.
An online real estate investment marketplace, Fundscraper, says it analyzed key performance indicators such as population, GDP per capita, employment, income, and housing prices, to determine which Canadian cities showcase the most promising growth and investment potential.
Kelowna came out on top while Saskatoon, Sask., and Barrie, Ont., rounded out the top three.
“The national discussion around real estate tends to focus almost exclusively on Toronto and Vancouver, with the occasional mention of other large cities thrown in. But while these markets continue to thrive, they are becoming increasingly expensive and perhaps unaffordable to a growing segment of those looking to invest in, or live in, these cities,” Luan Ha, CEO of Fundscraper said in a press release.
“Fortunately, Canada has many smaller markets with high-growth potential that offer solid fundamentals and well-priced investment opportunities. In particular, Kelowna has emerged as one of our markets to watch, due to its high employment rate and strong construction and healthcare sectors.”
Additionally, Fundscraper said the region has a strong retail sector and a robust healthcare economy, focused on both services and research and development.
In the summer of 2021, the median price of a Kelowna single-family home topped more than $1 million for the first time, according to a survey of listings from Royal LePage. That was up more than 22 per cent from a year earlier.
The median price is the mid-point valuation of all the homes sold, rather than the average.
According to BC Assessment, Kelowna’s 2022 typical assessed house value as of July 1, 2021, now sits at $869,000, which is a 34 per cent increase from $650,000 in 2021.
West Kelowna homes have a typical value of $856,000, up 34 per cent from last year’s $632,000 assessment and Lake Country now has a typically assessed value of $886,000, up from $672,000, which is an increase of 32 per cent.
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
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.
