The BC Real Estate Association Market Intelligence Report October 2021 analyzes the housing surge during the pandemic.
- The unusual circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic produced an unexpected and substantial increase in housing demand while the supply of listings fell.
- As a result, buyers outnumbered sellers by as much as 2.5 to 1 in some months with markets in Victoria and the Fraser Valley seeing more than 7 potential buyers for every seller.
- While demand has normalized somewhat, most provincial markets remain severely under-supplied and therefor far from balanced.
“There is no more undersupplied housing market in BC than Vancouver Island, and Victoria in particular. As a result of both soaring demand and crashing supply, the swing in the buyer-to-seller ratio was the most dramatic in this market. ”
“…the ratio for the Island as a whole hit 5.5 in February 2021, meaning that there were 5.5 times as many buyers as sellers in that month.”
Read the full BCREA Market Intelligence Report here.