Excess condos weigh heavily on local market
By ERICA BULMAN, 24 HOURS
B.C.’s once booming housing market is the nation’s new weak spot, with prices and sales dropping in previously red-hot Vancouver, according to a Bank of Montreal report released Monday.
Though Canada will likely avoid a crash, the condo market in pricey Vancouver is worrisome because capacity is significantly overbuilt, the report said, citing the new Olympic Village condos, currently about 60% sold.
Over the past decade Vancouver home prices have skyrocketed 159%, more than 50% higher than the national average. And the city’s price-to-income ratio has doubled.
This explains why the city is ranked second priciest, after Hong Kong, among 325 urban centres according to Demographia, which annually issues an international housing affordability survey that compares housing prices to incomes, the bank report said.
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