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JANUARY 2025 MARKET UPDATE

NANAIMO, BC – The Vancouver Island Real Estate Board (VIREB) recorded 434 unit sales and 2,988 active listings (all property types) board-wide on the MLS® System in January 2025, up 26 and five per cent, respectively.

In the single-family category (excluding acreage and waterfront), 205 homes sold in January, up 36 per cent from one year ago and down 10 per cent from December. Sales of condo apartments last month came in at 46, the same number as in January 2024 and up five per cent from December. In the row/ townhouse category, 43 units changed hands in January, up 10 per cent from one year ago and down 26 per cent from December.

Active listings of single-family homes were 888 last month, up from the 807 posted one year ago. VIREB’s inventory of condo apartments was 293 last month, up from 258 in January 2024. There were 219 row/townhouses for sale in January compared to 282 the previous year.

VIREB CEO Jason Yochim reports that VIREB’s 2025 housing market had a strong start, with singlefamily detached properties and row/townhouses posting healthy sales increases over last January. Condo sales remained flat, with no change from January 2024.

“REALTORS® are reporting that their phones are ringing, with many clients expressing interest in listing their home this spring,” says Yochim. “The market is stronger than it was last January, so there is a lot of optimism in the air.”

However, the threat of American tariffs looms large. The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) stated in its latest Market Intelligence Report (click here to read) that a 25 per cent tariff on all Canadian imports to the United States would seriously affect the Canadian and B.C. economies. That said, BCREA anticipates that in the most likely scenario, the B.C. housing market would see a temporary decline in activity before posting a robust recovery as mortgage rates decline substantially, thereby unleashing pent-up demand. Initially set to take effect on February 1, the tariffs are on “pause” for 30 days, according to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who spoke to President Trump yesterday.

Moving on to prices, the board-wide benchmark price (MLS® Home Price Index) of a single-family home was $774,600 in January 2025, up three per cent from one year ago. In the apartment category, the benchmark price was $393,600 last month, up one per cent from the previous January. The benchmark price of a townhouse last month was $540,000, up slightly from the prior year.

Regardless of market conditions, connecting with a local REALTOR® can help smooth the way to a successful real estate transaction.

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

JANUARY 2025 Statistics Package

Our JANUARY 2025 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.