The COVID-19 pandemic has caused all sorts of havoc but one thing Sunshine Coast property owners evidently don’t have to worry about is losing the equity they’ve poured into in their homes. The pandemic, to put it bluntly, has been good for real estate values on the Coast.
As we report this week, the Sunshine Coast saw the largest jump in year-over-year demand last month in the Metro Vancouver market, despite continuing near-record levels of demand across the region. The 106 homes sold on the Coast represented an 82.8 per cent increase over November 2019.
Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver chair Colette Gerber draws a direct link between the focus on “more remote areas” like the Sunshine Coast and the pandemic: “The rise of work-from-home arrangements and physical distancing policies is causing some home buyers to opt for less densified areas.”
The intense demand has pushed up the median price of residential property on the Coast, with reports of multiple offers and sales above asking price. The big challenge for real estate agents is that there just isn’t enough inventory to satisfy the demand.
“In my 26 years selling real estate I have not seen a market like we have seen in the last few months,” realtor Kenan MacKenzie said in his Nov. 30 market update, which notes that the “2020 market’s hot price range is over $1,001,000 with 140 sales.”
The shortage of inventory means most residents aren’t in a hurry to sell, at least not now. The same reasons that are drawing people here are keeping people here.
MacKenzie points out that the local market isn’t unique, in that people all around the world are now migrating out of urban centres. “People are working from home and realizing they can work anywhere. I think this has caused people to focus on their own priorities and quality of life. The Sunshine Coast is hard to beat in this regard.”
We can’t argue with that, but we also can’t ignore that none of this is good news for renters or first-time buyers trying to enter the market. In fact, it’s more of the same: the escalator is still moving in the wrong direction, except it’s now going faster.
That means corrective measures also have to speed up. More affordable housing needs to be built and it has to happen sooner rather than later. Short-term rentals have to be reined in to free up long-term rentals, and it has to happen now. Employers who survive the financial devastation of the pandemic have to seriously look at whether they are paying their workers enough to live on, and make the necessary adjustments.
Not everyone can live in a million-dollar home but the Sunshine Coast needs a healthy workforce and everyone needs to live somewhere.
