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MAY 2022 Market Update

NANAIMO, BC – The Vancouver Island Real Estate Board (VIREB) housing market appears to be shifting amidst lighter demand and increased inventory.

Last month, active listings of single-family homes (not acreage or waterfront) climbed by 64 percent from May 2021 and 34 percent from April of this year. VIREB’s inventory of condo apartments in May was 28 per cent higher than one year ago and increased by 32 per cent from April. Row/townhouse inventory rose by 49 per cent year over year and 12 per cent from April.

The increased inventory is good news for buyers, giving them more options to choose from and easing the pressure to move too quickly when making an offer. However, the market still favours sellers, and balanced conditions seem to be some distance away. According to the British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA), it will take a substantial decline in demand to return active listings on Vancouver Island to a healthy state.

By category, 455 single-family homes were reported sold on the MLS® System in May, a 14 per cent decrease from one year ago and down by 10 per cent from April.

There were 92 condo apartment sales last month, a decline of 38 per cent year over year and down by 19 per cent from April. In the row/ townhouse category, 103 units changed hands in May, up 10 per cent from one year ago and seven per cent from April 2022. As for prices, they continue to rise throughout the VIREB area. The board-wide benchmark price of a single-family home reached $867,000 in May, up 30 per cent year over year. In the apartment category, the benchmark price hit $451,900 last month, a 36 per cent increase from May 2021. The benchmark price of a townhouse increased by 30 per cent, climbing to $618,900 in May. 

For more information, check out the following resources on REALTOR Link®.

• May 2022 Statistics Package

Our May 2022 Market Update is provided above and available on YouTube; it summarizes our housing market in about two minutes. 

Please note: The Vancouver Island Real Estate Board (VIREB) transitioned to a new MLS® System in July 2020 and now uses a significantly different data model, which has affected our categories and terminology. For the boardsupplied graphs, single-family is now referred to as single-family detached, apartment as condo apartment, and townhouse as row/townhouse, which now includes patio homes. However, when reporting HPI numbers, VIREB still refers to single-family, apartment, and townhouse in the media release.

ABOUT VIREB - VIREB represents over 1,000 REALTORS® in nearly 90 member offices on Vancouver Island, from the Malahat in the south to the northern tip. VIREB cautions that average price information can be useful in establishing trends over time but does not indicate the actual prices in centres comprised of widely divergent neighbourhoods or account for price differential between geographic areas. Trademarks are owned or controlled by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) and identify real estate professionals who are members of CREA (REALTOR® ) and/or the quality of services they provide (MLS® ). Visit our website for updated information at www.vireb.com. HPI Note: Areas with insufficient data do not generate statistics and are not included in the HPI graphs.