[whatnext]

There was an article in the Sun on some trends:

...Stephen Punwasi, a prominent Canadian market analyst and director of Better Dwelling, recently said, “Greater Vancouver real-estate sales are returning to pre-pandemic levels, but prices are still falling” compared to their overall peak a couple of years earlier.

Most analysts owe the drop in 2019 at least in part to the cumulative effects of the B.C. government’s 20-per-cent foreign-buyers tax, as well as its speculation and vacancy tax, which targets “satellite” households in which breadwinners earn most of their wealth offshore but pay minimal Canadian income taxes.

Despite the slight June-July upturn in sales of detached homes in Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, the volume of sales is still almost half what it was in 2016. And the average price for a detached home in July in the north of the Fraser parts of Metro was about $1.6 million. That is exceptionally high compared to most cities around the world, but it’s below the peak of $1.83 million three and four years ago....

.....I think there is less demand for condo towers now, since many people who buy in condo towers are investors,” said Wong.

“So, with Airbnbs not doing well here, and people losing jobs and rents coming down, many people who own condo units want to sell.”

An exceptional number of condos, 2,964, flooded into the market in July. “Greater Vancouver has seen its biggest single-month surge of inventory in half a decade,” Punwasi said in a recent analysis.

“Everybody had the same idea — sell, in June. … New listings are hitting the market at such a rapid pace it’s killing price gains.”..

https://vancouversun.com/opinion/col...covid-19-world