March Madness has taken hold of Victoria's real-estate market as frenzied buyers vie for south Island properties.

The current March sales record, set back in 1991 with a total of 959 transactions, was last challenged in 2005 when total accepted offers reached 924. But this year, according to Victoria REALTOR Marko Juras of Fair Realty, things are different.

"It's absolute chaos out there. Over the weekend I wrote five offers, all above the asking price, and not a single offer got accepted. And given the volume of sales so far this month we're well on our way to beating the March sales record," Juras said.

To-date Victoria REALTORS have helped sell 696 properties through the Multiple Listings Service. Provided the trend continues, the month is expected to end with an excess of 1,000 sales, marking March 2016 as the third month ever to break the one thousand sales mark in Victoria.

What's fueling the chaos? Out-of-town buyers are a big part of the demand equation, says Juras.

"A Calgary buyer swooped in and bought a home my clients had made an offer on. The Calgarian made an unconditional offer of $110,000 over the seller's asking price. In my years in this industry, rarely, very rarely have I seen unconditional offers. And now they're occurring literally every day," Juras said, noting that about one-third of home sales in Victoria's urban core are going to Vancouverites, Calgarians and Torontonians who've set their sights on the capital city.

Despite the madness in the City of Victoria and central areas of the region's core, the situation is quite different on the Westshore where listings are attracting a mostly local audience.

"Nearly 100% of buyers out on the Westshore are locals and the prices are far lower than what we're seeing in the core. The Westshore remains a relatively affordable area to buy a house, condo or townhome," says Juras.

As for the future? Juras feels only a major economic upset could derail the current trend.

"Unless we have a massive macro-economic shock, such as a major stock market crash, we've got so much pent-up demand in Victoria that we're going to continue seeing much more bidding on properties over the next six months, at least, and prices can only go up given the current metrics in terms of sales and inventory." C

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