Greater Victoria’s April home sales through the Multiple Listings Service (MLS) show a growing appetite for south Island real-estate despite high prices and inflated interest rates.

 

The latest Victoria Real Estate Board (VREB) data shows more single-family dwellings sold throughout April than in any other month since May of 2022, when 367 sales were recorded, compared to April’s 325. The price of homes sold through the MLS also jumped to highs not seen since last spring, landing at an average transaction value of $1,288,146 and a $1,195,000 median. Both figures are the highest since June and May of last year, respectively, when the average reached $1,349,403 to become the near-term high water mark, while the median last May was set at a near-term pinnacle of $1,240,000.

 

“We saw the median jump by $115,000 between March and April, indicating buyers are willing to dig deeper for single-family listings, and we’re even seeing bidding scenarios on desirable properties,” says Marko Juras, a Victoria-based realtor.

 

205 condominiums sold in April at an average price of $620,606 and a median of $540,000. While neither category was noteworthy, the number of sales was the highest since May when 250 units sold via the MLS. Juras did note, however, that overall demand for condominiums was slower than in previous periods.

 

Townhome units sold also reached a peak, outperforming all months after May of last year, with 82 sales at an average price of $786,010 and a $739,540 median.

 

The take-away news from April, however, is once again a central theme in Victoria’s real-estate market of a persistent under-supply of re-sale inventory, which reached a comparatively small 2,043 units at month’s end. 

 

“Other than the COVID year of 2020, April represented a 20-year low in terms of new listings, reaching 1,036, and not adjusted for population growth. Total active listings were just over 2,000 units. Compare that with 2013, when over 1,400 properties were listed for sale in April, and the active listings totalled nearly 4,600 units, and the population was smaller at that time,” Juras said.

 

Regarding factors contributing to lower listings, and therefore an under-supply of homes relative to demand, Juras says an emerging theory is related to interest rates.

 

“We’re hearing about more and more would-be sellers taking a look at the market, and recognizing that when they sell their home, they may be hard-pressed to not only find but secure another home, and more importantly, they may not be able to port their existing mortgage at ultra-low interest rates,” Juras says, adding that “chances are when you upgrade your residence, you will require a bigger mortgage, and the cost implication appears to be putting the brake on a sizable volume of would-be re-sales and we're definitely seeing that down on the ground.”

 

Contributing to the above is the strong rental market in Victoria, which Juras has mentioned in prior market updates as negating the need for an investor to cash out in an otherwise slow-performing or declining real-estate market, thanks to high rental rates and a significant under-supply of rental inventory. Rather than sell for less, investors, in other words, are choosing to hold out for improved market conditions while collecting record-high rents and still benefiting from low interest rates.

 

In terms of total MLS activity in April, the VREB recorded 637 transactions, of which 16 were commercial acquisitions. To get a sense of where the market was at last April, have a read here. C