Halifax a luxury home market to watch

August 10, 2020

Halifax has been singled out as a luxury home “market to watch,” according to a national survey by real estate agency Engel & Völkers.
Nova Scotia’s biggest city has a low inventory of luxury homes, but it is also a destination for entrepreneurial millennials and international buyers, the real estate agency noted.
Engel & Völkers categorized Halifax as a “perfect storm” of a seller’s market due to a combination of market conditions.
“Ocean views, an entrepreneurial ecosystem, strong value and low interest rates are manifesting into unprecedented domestic and international demand,” the report states.
Halifax’s housing market began strong in the first two months of the year, but experienced an abrupt stop in new inventory that sustained for weeks when the COVID-19 pandemic surfaced.
“Despite home sales decreasing by 47.3 percent year-over-year and residential listings dropping 42.1 percent year-over-year, prices did not,” Engel & Völkers noted.
A short supply combined with buyer demand contributed to a sharp 9.3 percent price increase in May. June reported a significant increase of 10.4 percent in home sales compared to 2019—setting a new sales record for the province, the agency reported.
As of June 30, Halifax had 22 homes listed for sale priced at $4 million or more and another 207 homes available at prices from $1 million to $4 million, according to Engel & Völkers.