Despite the recent market slowdown, condos in downtown Vancouver and detached houses on Vancouver's West Side are the most expensive homes in Canada on a per-square-foot basis, a reveals.
The average price of a downtown Vancouver condo is pegged at $1,345 per square foot, which is a staggering 39 per cent higher than one year previously, according to the Century 21 Canada report released November 7.
Since , downtown condos have overtaken West Side houses as Canada鈥檚 priciest per-square-foot home type. West Side detached homes slid nearly five per cent year over year, but followed close behind at $1,147 per square foot.
Stepping over the border into Burnaby offers much more living space for your money, with per-square-foot house prices averaging $599, up 1.91 per cent from the same period in 2017.
At $898.50, West Vancouver鈥檚 house prices were the fourth priciest homes per square foot in Canada, beaten out 鈥� as they were last year 鈥� by downtown Toronto condos. The West Vancouver per-square-foot figure is a 10 per cent increase over the same period last year, despite absolute home prices dropping in that time.
So why are West Vancouver鈥檚 notoriously expensive houses so much less expensive than the West Side鈥檚, on a square-foot basis?
鈥淚n West Vancouver, most of the homes are on considerably larger lots than the 33-foot lots that are typical for the West Side,鈥� Brian Rushton, executive vice-president of CENTURY 21 Canada, told Glacier Media in response to last year鈥檚 survey, which saw similar results. 鈥淭hat means when you break the numbers down on a per-square-foot basis, it鈥檚 the West Side that鈥檚 more expensive.鈥�
Per-square-foot house prices in Richmond also increased by more than 10 per cent year over year, to $677. And in Delta, they were up 14.3 per cent to $423.
Century 21 acknowledged that because the survey compared price data in the first six months of 2018 with the same period in 2017, price declines since that time are not taken into account.
Rushton said of this year鈥檚 survey, 鈥淚t is no surprise that Vancouver鈥檚 downtown and West Side once again topped the list of Canada鈥檚 most expensive properties per square foot, even with a small decline over the last year. Looking across 小蓝视频, the price variation is remarkable. Going out just one or two suburbs cuts your price in half, while prices in more rural areas are closer to a quarter or less of those in Vancouver.鈥�
Rushton added that the bigger bang for your buck is prompting home buyers to move to better-value areas. 鈥淲e are hearing anecdotally from agents in the Fraser Valley and in communities like Victoria that they are seeing an increase in the number of Vancouver residents moving to take advantage of lower house pricing, which the surge in prices in Chilliwack and elsewhere would seem to support.鈥�
Victoria鈥檚 detached houses offer much better value than Vancouver, even with an 11 per cent annual increase taking them to $509 per square foot. In Fort St. John, the cost of a square foot of detached house dropped more than 27 per cent to just $171. Prices in Vernon increased 10 per cent year over year to $366 per square foot, added the report.
The real estate brokerage said that per-square-foot prices were calculated by Century 21 franchisees across Canada, taking into account local average or benchmark sale prices and square footage of homes sold in their area.
