Luxury homes drive growing number of sales

Luxury homes may be seeing higher demand in Calgary in this hot resale market, but a new study found ultra-luxury homes still make up a thin sliver of overall activity. The study by Point2 Homes, released in early March, looked at home listings priced over $1 million, considered luxury's entry point in many cities, and for ultra-luxury homes priced at $4 million or more.

In Calgary, $1-million homes made up about 18 per cent of all listings in February. By comparison, more than 70 per cent of listings were priced at least $1 million in Vancouver.

In Toronto, nearly 38 per cent of listings were priced $1 million or higher. Even Ottawa and Montreal have higher percentages than Calgary at about 24 and 22 per cent, respectively, the study found.

For listings of $4 million and more, Vancouver again had the highest percentage at nearly 13 per cent in February.

Yet most of the other cities with the highest percentage of ultra-luxury listings were in the Greater Toronto Area, including Oakville at about eight per cent, and Richmond Hill at about seven per cent.

City of Toronto ranked 10th with 4.5 per cent of new listings above $4 million.

Calgary, in contrast, took 30th spot with only 0.4 per cent of listings in that price range. Yet Calgary Real Estate Board statistics from February show resales for homes of $2 million or more in February grew more than 71 per cent year over year — albeit from 7 to 12 homes.

In the $1 million to $1,999,999 range, however, activity was much more robust, up 97 per cent, with 140 sales in February versus 71 in 2023.