The big news in the past month is the recent massive hike in Strata building insurance premiums. Horror stories tell of hikes of 350% to 780% increase to the premium. One condo building in Abbotsford had to implement a one-time levy of $,3000 a unit and a doubling of the monthly strata fee to $600. And if you think that is bad, try not being able to get insurance. There are buildings that are having trouble getting insurance. This can potentially cause the bank to pull financing which means they want their money back but you can’t sell the unit because any new buyer will not be able to get financing. It is unclear why the huge increases now. Some say old buildings with bad claim history are getting hit hard, but new buildings are getting hit as well. The province government is aware of the issue but no action has been taken so far. I will keep a close eye on this one.
In terms of the real estate activities in January, the sales activities are close to normal while the inventory is below average. The prices continue to climb higher. The market looks relatively healthy for now. Here are the details.
The home sales number is 7.3% below the 10-year January average while the current total number of homes listed is 13.7% below the 10-year January average. The sales-to-active listings ratio for detached homes was 11.6%, for townhomes was 22.6% and for apartments was 23.9%. The range of 12% to 20% is considered to be a balanced market with neutral pricing pressures. However, all property types showed an increase in price from December. For detached homes, there was a 0.5% price increased compared to December 2019. The increase for apartments and attached homes were 1% and 0.5% respectively.
