“Metro Vancouver’s new home market was negatively impacted by the recent government initiatives to slow down sales activity in the region,” according to the latest quarter Urban Development Institute State of the Market Q3 2016 report, compiled by real estate think tank Urban Analytics and released November 17.
Just over 3,000 new multi-family home sales were recorded in 2016’s third quarter, which is a decline of 34 per cent from the same quarter last year and a drop of 55 per cent from the six-year record set in 2016’s second quarter, said the report.
The figures run contrary to recent media reports suggesting that the new home market is bucking the downward trend seen in Metro Vancouver’s resale market. There have also been several press releases issued recently to media by developers citing recent presales successes.
“Some developments are doing really well, but there is an overall slowdown in the new home market,” Jon Bennest, principal at Urban Analytics and one of the report’s authors, confirmed to REW.ca. “There are a number of reasons for this, and the new foreign buyer tax is just one of them. In fact the market was already showing signs of cooling prior to the introduction of the foreign buyer’s tax.” Read more
