Stop us if you’ve heard this before — Vancouver real estate prices are at an all-time high.
The Canadian Real Estate Association’s numbers for the month of May show a 30 per cent year-over-year increase across Greater Vancouver with the benchmark price hitting $889,000.
Provincewide, the average price of a home is now more than $722,000, up 14 per cent in a year.
The overheated market has some calling for drastic measures.
“I think we should have a six-month ban on any foreign purchases of residential properties. I think we need a cooling off period,” Bill Tieleman, a political columnist with 24 Hours, said.
WATCH: Province reluctant to help cool B.C.’s red hot housing market
Last week, the Bank of Canada warned that house prices in Vancouver and Toronto were climbing at an unsustainable pace and that they had outpaced local economic fundamentals.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Montreal is calling for government action to cool the market down, warning that current prices are unsustainable.
BMO chief economist Douglas Porter wrote:
“We would recommend that policy action be aimed at those it can affect — foreign investment, speculation and land restrictions, in that order.”
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The B.C. government has resisted aggressive intervention. Tieleman has a theory as to why.
“I think the B.C. government is too indebted politically through contributions by the real estate and development industry,” he said.
With a record number of homes under construction in Metro Vancouver, the real estate association predicts price growth will stabilize over the next year.
– With files from Jordan Armstrong and The Canadian Press
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