TheBear

http://vancouvercondo.info/2008/11/v...from-peak.html

Vancouver's property market is falling like the perverbial stone. About six months later starting than ours, but going down much faster...4.2% in one month FFS!!!! This is before the olympics too, after that circus has gone prices will have even further to fall. This is good news for people who are moving from here to BC as it means their losses won't be crystalised as they will be able to buy cheaper. If you're moving to BC with cash...you're laughing.

Danny B

I'd hardly be laughing at paying close to $700k for a poxy condo.

Khiran

Not if you bought a property before you land. I bought a condo in Port Moody from a Canadian realtor in Dubai almost a year back. I thought buying a property under construction will be a good investment but you never know. I think the market will recover eventually but it will take time. a property can get sick but it will never die

Rich_007

If you think that moving to BC with cash, laughing, is laughing, then you're deluded and totally clueless.

R.

ThemeOne

With the current pitiful exchange rate, I doubt anyone moving to Canada from the UK is laughing, though obviously falling property prices in Canada will help a bit.

Strawberry

I understand, but seriously, you can still get a lot more for your money in Canada than the UK.

Strawberry

[QUOTE=6mathers;6976646]I understand, but seriously, you can still get a lot more for your money in Canada than the UK.[/QUOTE

woops, this is only through looking on internet though, it seems like it!!!

triumphguy

Property prices will climb again.

Canadian property prices rise an AVERAGE of 5-6% per year. Some years they can be up 20% (Calgary a couple fo years ago), then there's a correction.

babycart

The only sure thing to say about the housing market is that there are no longer any rules. Vancouver is just beginning to come out of the denial phase of a market slow down, then the panic will set in- who knows where it will go from there.

triumphguy

The so-called Asian Flu hit Vancouver badly in the 90's. Prices dropped 'cos the rules had changed. They came back up.

In the early 80's, when mortgage rates hit 18% and the oil boom went bust poeple were selling their houses for a dollar, or just walked out on their homes.
The market went back up.

Toronto has also had it's housing bubble and busts.

Now is as good a time as any to buy.

Buy low, sell high!

My parents bought a lot in Invermere BC in the early 80's for $30,000. That land is now worth $400,000.

TheBear

I wouldn't say now was a good time buy...not after a one month drop of 4.2%. The thing about markets is that if people think they're going to bag a better bargain by waiting a month, they will wait, which feeds into the falls as there are less buyers...it's as self perpetuating as a boom, when people are worried they'll have to pay so much more if they wait another month, so bring forward their purchase decision.

A good time to buy is when you can afford an appropriate property for your 'social standing' that is in a sensible proportion to your income. That doesn't seem to be the case for the vast majority of people in Vancouver at the moment, so I suspect prices have some way to fall, unless their is a dramatic change in the lending climate. Toronto is different, they haven't had such a boom.

Iain Mc

To a point. That point being where a significant proportion of sellers, who do not need to sell but are merely moving about for lifestyle or other reasons, do not wish to accept prices below asking and pull their properties off the market to wait for better times. This is already happening around here (the other option is that they just leave the For Sale sign up - if a house has been on the market for ages it is just as likely to be because sellers are not accepting the offers, rather than there being no offers).

This reduces the pool of available property and puts the brakes on price deflation.

So yes, there may be further room for prices to drop, and there a lots of bargains to be had (especially if you're looking for condos), but you need to keep a close eye on supply as well as demand. Vancouver is a funny market, very regionalised, and doesn't always behave as you might expect.

Until you actually get into negotiations you won't know whether the owner of the house YOU want actually gives a stuff about the reports or whether they're quite prepared to sit it out. If you're after a family home in a nice area you may be surprised.

MarkG

When I moved over in 2007 we bought about the same time as a relative in the UK; both in rural cities, we paid less money than they did, and we got a three-bed detached house with garage while they got a two-bed flat.

However, prices have risen here since then (at the peak we could probably have sold the house for 30% more than we paid last year) and prices have dropped over there; including the crash in the value of the pound, you might now get a three-bed terraced house for the same price as this one. If the pound drops much more, even the cheaper cities in Canada are going to start looking expensive.

TheBear

I agree, markets are very complex, and if people don't have to sell, they won't...forced sellers are another matter...if you don't see a rise in unemployment in BC, then prices won't drop that far. I find the whole Olympics things interesting. Will prices drop after the games? If I get over there soon I would be very cautious about buying at the moment, but if I saw a place I felt I could be happy in, and afford comfortably, I'd probably buy it and not look at the price indices any more.

The whole pound tanking against the dollar is only a problem if you haven't hedged or put money in a Canadian account. If you are planning on moving there, that's something someone sensible should have done.

MarkG

Difficult to do if you have to sell your house in the UK before you move; most people aren't going to sell up and rent for several years before moving.