Vancouver’s property market slowed down in the second half of 2011 after a booming start to the year according to a new report.
The research form the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver revealed that prices in the area have dropped 1.5% from June to the end of the year.
However, the overall figure for the year shows that prices for residential properties were up 7.6%.
Rosari Setticasi, president of the Board, said: “2011 started with very strong demand, especially in [Vancouver's] west side, Richmond and West Vancouver, but then it peaked in June and closed the year with greater balance between sellers' supply and buyers' demand."
"[Prices] dropped about 1.5% June to the end of the year. But overall, the benchmark price for all residential properties increased 7.6 per cent for the year."
The average price for a home in the area is now $621,674, with the Port Moody area seeing the largest increase in its benchmark price, rising by 34% to $933,000.
The total number of transactions of residential properties in 2011 rose 5.9% year on year to 32,390, added the Greater Vancouver board. However, this figure was stil 9.2% down on the 35,669 homes sold in 2009.
The slowdown in Vancouver real estate price growth is expected to continue according to Robyn Adamache, a senior market analyst at Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.
“We’re expecting much less price growth this year compared to 2011,” Adamache said. “We’re calling for about a two-to-three per cent increase in price growth in 2012, close to the rate of inflation.”
Tsur Somerville, director of the centre for urban economics and real estate at the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, said that confidence levels in the worldwide economy will also affect Vancouver’s 2012, as will reduced levels of investments from China.
“My sense is that flat or little growth [in prices] is likely,” he said.
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