Vancouver sellers beginning to fret

Vancouver home sellers are beginning to panic that they may be sitting on their luxury properties for a long time.

Vancouver home sellers are beginning to panic that they may be sitting on their luxury properties for a long time.
Despite Vancouver’s property market being in full spring, sellers at the luxury end are seeing no such activity.

The shock cancellation of the Immigration Investor Program earlier this year has been cited as one of the primary reasons for a lack of interest and sales. “From what I am seeing on the ground here, there is a noticeable lack of activity from the traditional group of buyers, most notably the Chinese,” Realtor Russell Sharp said.

“There is normally a whirlwind of activity at this time but the demand has reduced,” he told MortgageBrokerNews.ca's sister publication, Canadian Real Estate Wealth. “Sellers are definitely worried about the market, especially as a lot of new supply is coming onto the market.”

In the wake of the government controversially cancelling the program, average house prices in the greater Vancouver area suffered their biggest month-on-month fall record in March, plunging more than 11 per cent.

“When you cancel 69,000 visas at the one time, you are cutting a huge supply into the market,” adds Sharp.

However, he says that many Chinese investors are actively finding ways to bring their cash into Canada through other routes which may help the Vancouver market in the coming months.