Vancouver Presale Condos & Real Estate When a property market is hot, there are always signs of slowdowns and possible flattening out or dips in the real estate market. The Vancouver condominium property market is going through such fluctuation at the moment.

In many ways, what you see in the American property market should not happen to any major city or town in Canada. However, with any investment, regardless of whether you are investing in stocks, RSPs, mutual funds, or property, nothing is fault proof.

The Vancouver real estate presales market is still holding strong, although many of the industry forecasts of a slowdown have occurred already, especially in markets where there has been to much inventory released during the past few years. Such places in Greater Vancouver such as Surrey and Burnaby are seeing a vast slow down in pre-sales condominium sales as well as pre-construction condo towers as the demand for these types of residences are decreasing. With many first time home buyers in Vancouver already owning and waiting for their presales condominium homes to be completed within the next two or three years, many real estate investors in Vancouver are staying away from the once very hot pre-construction condo market.

Why the slowdown?
With any market, regardless of the population size, the location and the economic fundamentals, real estate moves in cycles. At the moment, Vancouver and the Lower Mainland has enjoyed a real estate investment boom for almost six or seven years with very large increases of over twenty per cent per annum for four of those years. Such a growth has to be balanced or offset by income levels. Unfortuantely, the statistics show that in the presales Vancouver property market, although real estate has increased more than two-fold over the past three years, income levels have stagnated and even decreased in many industry sectors. This is not a good sign for any property market as affordability is alarmingly high and the latest stats compiled by world organizations on housing affordability in major cities have Vancouver ranked eleventh in the most costliest and unaffordable places to live. Yes, Vancouver is ranked in the top three cities of the world to live in, but it is increasingly difficult for any investor or home buyer to get into the property market as the prices have soared well beyond the limits of someone’s income level. The result can be devastating as presales and Vancouver construction property prices may plummet to all time lows within a few years but industry analysts have talked about how Vancouver may buck the trend.

Vancouver is an international city
Althought the presales Vancouver real estate market has stumbled in 2007 and will continue to do so for the next few years until the 2010 Winter Olympics, many of the property developments in all of the Lower Mainland should be sold out completely before the completion and move-in dates of such projects. This goes to show that even with affordability being such a big issue in the pre-construction Vancouver and presales condominium market in this area, there is always an increasing international presence in this city. With many investors and home buyers from Asia seeking luxurious condo residences in the most beautiful city in the world, the presales condominium market in Vancouver should remain stable at least for now, or until the Asia market economies slow down. The international investment coming into Vancouver is one of the major factors in the stability of the market and also one of the main causes for the upwards trend in property prices too. It’s kind of like a double edged sword, but in many cases, Vancouverites who currently own real estate or presales condos in the city do not complain too much as the reverse will be a sudden drop in their land and property values, many of whom have leveraged for other types of investments.

The Vancouver presales and real estate future
The twenty per cent or more capital gains in equity appreciation per year are not coming back anytime soon to the pre-sales Vancouver property market and the pre-construction projects have slowed down except in growing cities like Surrey, Port Coquitlam, Coquitlam, Richmond and Langley. However, the expected increase for 2007 by industry analysts and the major banks of Canada have pegged Vancouver’s real estate growth at 7.5% this year followed by five years between four or five per cent per annum. Of course, when you are talking about the presales Vancouver property prices and appreciation, this is compounded every year, which makes for a big increase every year still. However, as you can see, the presales and pre-construction Greater Vancouver property market has slowed down and will continue on this trend for some time. It has turned into more of a buyer’s market now, rather than a seller’s and you can definitely find some great deals both in the Vancouver presales market as well as the developed inventory on MLS or Comfree. Certain trends to watch out for include the interest rate decrease expectations this year which will influence and lower the mortgage rates on all real estate properties in Vancouver in addition to the increase in financing without CMHC insurance by all major banks which will change from 75% financing to 80% this year. This will allow for more first time homebuyers to get into either the pre-construction and presales Vancouver real estate market or to upgrade from their current residence.

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