Home sales in Vancouver dropped 5.6 per cent last year, real estate board says
Vancouver’s real estate market had a roller-coaster year in 2016, peaking with record sales in the spring but wrapping with a 5.6 per cent drop from 2015, the area’s real estate board said Wednesday.
Sales of residential properties in Greater Vancouver hit an all-time high in March. Figures show the market began to slow down before the province implemented a 15-per-cent foreign-buyers tax in August.
The effect of the tax is still being debated, but the second half of 2016 clearly showed a cooling real estate sector, with sales and eventually prices declining. The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver said sales were down 39.4 per cent in December compared with the same month in 2015.
“(The tax) came in and scared everybody. We’ve had several months now of people sitting on the sidelines and waiting to see what’s going to happen,” said board president Dan Morrison.