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Vancouver’s luxury market is being reshaped by new buyer sentiments and economic factors like high housing prices and low supply. That’s according to a new report from Sotheby’s International Realty Canada, which found the third quarter of 2023 “defied seasonal trends.”
Luxury condo and single-family home sales over $4 million declined by 18 per cent year-over-year in the first half of 2023. However, luxury market sales took a turn in the summer with an increase of 96 per cent year-over-year between July 1 and Aug. 31.
“Whether it was Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, we saw strong a July and August and then somewhat of a pullback in September, but probably more pronounced in Vancouver than in any other market,” said Don Kottick, president and CEO of Sotheby’s International Realty Canada.
Vancouver’s more pronounced pullback is attributed to the impacts of inflation, higher mortgage rates and Vancouver’s persistently low housing supply, he said.
Beyond just the luxury market, high borrowing costs are dampening sales in B.C, with home sales trending at below average levels in September, according to an Oct. 12 market update from the B.C. Real Estate Association.
Luxury buyers in Vancouver have shifted their preference towards single-family homes, with this property type accounting for 89 per cent of the 55 properties sold between July 1 and Aug. 31 at over $4 million, according to the Sotheby’s report.
This represents a 145 per cent annual increase over the summer months.
There were four single-family homes sold for over $10 million during this period compared with two sold in the summer of 2022. September sales for properties over $4 million decreased by 26 per cent annually to 14 homes sold.
