Vancouver home sales soared 194 per cent from January

July 14, 2023



Housing sales in Metro Vancouver increased 194 per cent through the first half of 2023 as detached houses and condo apartments neared record high prices according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV).
A total of 1,573 condos sold in June 2023—more than the combined sales of detached houses and townhouses. And the benchmark price of a condo reached $767,000—up $47,000 since the start of 2023. Condo prices were up 0.5 per cent from June 2022 and 0.8 per cent above May 2023.
“The market continues to outperform expectations across all segments, but the [condo] apartment segment showed the most relative strength in June,” said Andrew Lis, REBGV’s director of economics and data analytics. “The benchmark price of [condo] apartment homes is almost cresting the peak reached in 2022, while sales of apartments are now above the region’s 10-year seasonal average.”
Total home sales in the region totalled 2,988 in June 2023—up 21.1 per cent from the 2,467 sales recorded in June 2022. Sales, however, were 8.6 per cent below the 10-year seasonal average June.
The number of homes currently listed for sale in Greater Vancouver is 9,990—a 7.9 per cent decrease compared to June 2022.
REBGV said that a continued lack of housing supply, relative to demand, is driving all prices higher. The benchmark price of a detached house in June was $1,991,300—up $190,000 from January 2023 and 3.2 per cent higher than June 2022. The typical townhouse sold in June for $1,098,000—down 1 per cent from June 2022.
The composite benchmark price of all properties is now $1.2 million—up 2.4 per cent from a year ago and increasing 1.3 per cent (about $15,300) a month since January 2023.
Lis repeated REBGV's call to the provincial government to raise the current $525,000 price threshold exempting first-time buyers from the provincial property transfer tax, but any such an adjustment is likely to be of little help in relation to price increases.