Insurance delays aren’t slowing house sales
Wildfires can make it tough to get a new property insurance policy in some parts of the Okanagan, but that hasn’t slowed down the housing market, according to a local realtor.
“It’s not a new problem for the Okanagan. It’s something that has arisen in the past and we are all educated about it and our clients are well-served with our local knowledge,” said Lyndi Cruickshank with Engel & Volkers South Okanagan.
Cruickshank, also vice-president of the Association of Interior Realtors, said agents are working closely with insurance companies and lawyers to make sure purchase contracts are crafted to account for potential delays buyers may face in obtaining the coverage required for banks to lend to them.
That has meant pushing back closing dates on some deals, said Cruickshank, but it’s no reason to stop shopping for a new home and even more reason to work with a realtor who is experienced in the Okanagan.
Rob de Pruis, a spokesperson for the Insurance Bureau of Canada, suggested it’s equally important to deal with experienced insurance brokers.
“We do know that there are about 100 or so insurance companies that operate in B.C. that offer some level of home or property insurance, so it’s really just a matter of customers talking to experienced, knowledgeable brokers to understand what their options are and where they might be able to place coverage,” said de Pruis.
“There are options available and every insurance company is a competitor and they all have different operating policies and procedures.”
For example, some firms won’t write a new policy if there’s an active wildfire within 25 kilometres of the subject property,
continued de Pruis, while others won’t write a new policy if the subject property is covered by an evacuation alert.
But there could be other options available, like adding a new home to an existing policy or putting a new owner on an existing policy.
“It’s just really a matter of shopping around, making a few phone calls and talking to a knowledgeable broker,” said de Pruis.
Meanwhile, home prices continued rising across the Okanagan during the early part of the summer despite sales declining on a year-over-year basis.
Fresh data from the Association of Interior Realtors shows residential sales across the Okanagan totalled 1,074 in July, down 21% from the same month last year.
More striking was the 30% drop in new listings with 1,474 properties placed on the market last month, compared to 2,096 in the year-ago period.
That helped lift the benchmark price of a single-family home in the Central Okanagan to $934,000, up 32% from July 2020.
The same benchmark home in the North Okanagan increased in value by 32% to $667,000 and in the South Okanagan by 27% to $780,000.
“We live in a very desirable region, so it’s no surprise that high buyer demand has remained consistent into the summer months.
“While sales are down compared to last year, this is likely due to lack of inventory coupled with normal seasonality of the real estate market,” said Kim Heizmann, president of the Association of Interior Realtors, in a press release.
“There is a gap in active listings supply compared to the amount of demand that we are experiencing.
“It will be interesting to see if this gap between supply and demand will be lessened in the coming months.”