Diana Winger Real Estate Victoria and Vancouver Island

Interest rates a large factor in Victoria real estate market

A total of 407 properties sold in the Victoria Real Estate Board region this October, 15.2 per cent fewer than the 480 properties sold in October 2022 and a 17.4 per cent decrease from September 2023. Sales of condominiums were down 7.2 per cent from October 2022 with 141 units sold. Sales of single family homes decreased 16.1 per cent from October 2022 with 193 sold.

“Overall, property sales drifted down in October compared to the previous month, likely due to consumers continuing to navigate interest rates higher than those seen in nearly two decades,” said Victoria Real Estate Board Chair Graden Sol. “The uncertainty around the direction of the Bank of Canada rate announcement in mid-October may have caused some buyers to push their purchasing plans into the future because it was unclear if rates were going to be hiked again or remain stable. Generally speaking, when we have periods of static interest rates, consumer confidence returns to the market. We can recall earlier in the year when rates plateaued; we saw an uptick in sales in the weeks after. However, when rates began to rise again, we saw consumer confidence falter.”

CURRENT INTEREST RATES

5 Canadian Cities and Towns
For People Who Love the Beach

3. Tofino, British Columbia

Imagine golden sunsets, all-season surfing, whale watching, and decadent seafood; that’s Tofino in a nutshell. This coastal town is straight out of a summer movie.

The beaches

Tofino is home to some of the most beautiful beaches in Canada. Chesterman Beach is the birthplace of Tofino’s storm watching tradition and is home to an array of marine life forms. If you’re just looking to visit, consider staying at the Chesterman Beach Bed and Breakfast where you can stay in beachfront suits. Next, the aptly named Long Beach—considered the surf capital of Canada—is famous for its massive waves. It’s also home to Canada’s only all-women surf school. Another beach of note is Cox Bay Beach, where you can find hundreds of driftwood logs and a stunning view of the Pacific Ocean.

The vibe

Tofino has about 2,500 year-round residents. With its mild weather and pristine sand, it’s a paradise for people who’ve dreamed of living on a beach and having a lifelong connection to the waves. If you love the local-business vibe, you’ll love Tofino, which has banned franchise operations in the town.

Learn more about Tofino, Vancouver Island’s vacation destination, in our REALTOR.ca Neighbourhood Guide. Image via Unsplash

HOUSE PRICES TO INCREASE 89%

CMHC predicts 89% nominal price increase by 2030. Read the full report here.

NEW SHORT-TERM RENTAL ACCOMODATION
LEGISLATION ANNOUNCED BY BC

Early this week the province announced their Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act.

From the Ministry of Housing:

The legislation focuses on three key areas:

   •   increasing fines and strengthening tools for local governments;
   •   returning more short-term rentals to long-term homes; and
   •   establishing provincial rules and enforcement.

Changes to how short-term rentals operate will come into effect through a phased-in approach and will include:

Increasing fines and better tools for local governments:
   •   increasing fines for operators breaking local rules to support local municipal bylaws, and requiring short-term rental platforms to share data to strengthen local enforcement;
   •   requiring online short-term rental platforms to share their data with the Province, so the Province can provide that information to local governments for enforcement and support of provincial and federal tax auditing;
   •   requiring short-term rental platforms to include businesses licence numbers on listings where they are used by a local government, and to remove listings without them quickly to ensure local rules are being followed; and
   •   giving regional districts the ability to issue business licences so they can more effectively regulate short-term rentals in rural areas.

READ THE NEWS RELEASE HERE

REVIEW THE BRIEFING PRESENTATION HERE

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...
MORE REAL ESTATE NEWS

Financial Post - 3.4 million Canadians will renew their mortgages by 2025 — and they're worried The days of “rock-bottom rates” are over and mortgage borrowers will have to adjust to the new reality. That’s the message from real estate brokerage Royal LePage, which released a poll Oct. 26 showing elevated homeowner anxiety about the coming wave of mortgage renewals.

Storeys - Government of Canada 'actively examining' action on short-term rentals The jury is still out on whether British Columbia's recently announced actions against illegal short-term rentals will have their desired effects, but it's now received a big endorsement from Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who says the federal government is following suit.

Financial Post - Record-high mortgage stress test puts homes out of reach for more Canadians Home prices have fallen in Canada, yet at the same time buying a home is becoming more unaffordable. So how does that work?

CBC Toronto - Rockier road to 1.5M new Ontario homes, construction industry insiders say Ontario faces a tough road to meet its goal of building more than a million new homes. Construction industry insiders say the latest government policy reversal and elevated interest rates wreak uncertainty for developers.

Canadian Mortgage Professional - The Bank of Canada has left its benchmark rate unchanged at 5.00%
Storeys – Population growth in Canada is outpacing housing completions by 40%
Storeys – Home prices may be down, but income needed to buy is up
Stress test: 4 in 5 Canadian mortgage holders worried about payment hikes (Global News)
Financial Post – Bank of Canada hold means 'suffocating' mortgage payments to stick around
Globe and Mail – Bank of Canada says it is not seeing the decline in house prices it had expected
New home sales soared last month as buyers swarmed the market before mortgage rates could rise even more (Yahoo Finance Canada)
Financial Post – HAIDER & MORANIS: Trudeau's bashing of real estate investors shows lack of understanding about housing
Globe and Mail – Worried preconstruction homebuyers test their options
Globe and Mail – GOLD: B.C.’s Airbnb crackdown will devastate some real estate investors
Canadian Mortgage Professional – Bank of Canada likely to begin cutting rates in mid-2024: CIBC's Tal
Canada still hasn’t seen the full impact of BoC rate hikes: National Bank (Better Dwelling)
Toronto Star – More than half of Toronto condos built in recent years were investor-owned, StatsCan report finds
Canadian Mortgage Professional – How can Canada's housing affordability crisis be solved?
Canadian Mortgage Professional – Canada housing crisis: How can the country build more homes?
Home sales, prices will likely fall in short term but pick up next spring: TD report (Yahoo Finance Canada)
New report shows just how far out of reach home ownership has become (Global News)
How much mortgage can the median household income afford in these cities? (Rates.ca)
What a rate pause at 5% means for homeowners (BNN Bloomberg)
Amid housing crisis many cities have vacant residential land: StatCan (Global News)
Share of Canadians missing mortgage payments is down from last year: CMHC (Global News)
About 60% of outstanding mortgages facing payment shock in next 3 years: RBC (Yahoo Finance Canada)
Homebuyers turn to alternative lenders for mortgages as rising rates make qualifying harder (The Globe and Mail)
Canada can’t double its housing output & rate hike impact still coming (Better Dwelling)
Inventory and new housing starts rising, prices falling: CMHC (Real Estate Magazine)
What the CMHC says it wants from cities seeking federal housing cash (Global News)
Storeys – New B.C. legislation will override cities, allow 6 units per lot
Vancouver Sun – PALMER: End of the line for single-family neighbourhoods in most of B.C.
Fixed-payment variable rate mortgages a “dangerous product,” says OSFI (Canadian Mortgage Trends)
Expected wave of mortgage renewals contributed to latest rate hold: Bank of Canada (Canadian Mortgage Trends)
Canada’s housing affordability sees significant ‘deterioration,’ report says (Global News)
Toronto Star – Homeowners on the brink face tough choice of selling home as mortgage payments climb
Survey shows more than 50 per cent of Canadians at risk of missing mortgage payment within 3 months (The Nelson Daily)
Latest in mortgage news: BC regulator slaps CIBC with $3.4M fine over mortgage violation (Canadian Mortgage Trends)
Canadians co-purchasing homes “sure to run into conflict” without plan (Wealth Professional)
Victoria Times Colonist - Tiny Town sold but expected to stay in Victoria
Victoria Times Colonist - Les Leyne: Rent long-term or sell, minister tells vacation-rental owners
Victoria Times Colonist - Massive Roundhouse project to go to public hearing in next few months
Victoria Times Colonist - Victoria council considers camping ban in four more parks
Victoria Times Colonist - Greater Victoria real estate sales drop amid interest-rate uncertainty
Victoria Times Colonist - $286M, 306-bed long-term care facility planned for Nanaimo area
Expect soft B.C. home sales the rest of the year, says real estate association (Business in Vancouver)
B.C. advancing plan to get more affordable housing built (Global News)
New legislation aims to create more small-scale and multi-unit housing in B.C. (CBC)
Real estate professional shortage in B.C.? Immigrants fast-tracked under new credential-recognition legislation (Real Estate Magazine)

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