Market moderates in South Okanagan
Slowdown during 2nd half of 2018 leads to 26% drop in home sales in region last year
Home sales across the South Okanagan tapered off last year, according to fresh industry statistics.
In its final report of 2018, the South Okanagan Real Estate Board put the total number of homes sold in Penticton last year at 878, a 26 per cent decrease from 1,193 in 2017.
And as of Dec. 31, 390 homes were on the market, compared to 237 a year earlier.
Real estate agent Kirk Chamberlain, of Chamberlain Property Group, said while the first half of 2018 was strong, sales slowed later in the year.
“It’s a combination of the (stricter) mortgage rules, but also . . . the speculation tax and foreign buyers’ tax,” he said.
“That’s really slowed the Vancouver market down, which was their intent, and unfortunately it slowed . . . our market. Vancouver buyers were always our biggest pool of buyers.”
Meanwhile, Naramata continues to top the list as the South Okanagan’s most expensive area to live, with the average singlefamily home selling for $826,000 last year. Twenty-four homes traded hands in 2018, a 14 per cent decrease from 28 in 2017.
Despite the higher homes prices, Karla Kozakevich, Naramata’s representative on the board of the District of the OkanaganSimilkameen, remains positive the community is a growing destination for young families.
“We’ve seen an increase in enrolment
in the Naramata school, so we definitely are attracting families,” she said.
Hardest hit outside Penticton, in terms of sales, was Summerland, which experienced a 23 per cent
fall in home sales with a total of 204 residences sold in 2018, well down from 267 a year earlier.
Chamberlain, who’s expecting a “tougher year” in 2019, believes the speculation tax may have the unintended effect of boosting the South Okanagan market.
“Because if we don’t have those (taxes), we’re still going to get more of the buyers than, say, Kelowna and West Kelowna,” he explained.
Those two cities are covered by the speculation tax, which charges 0.5 per cent on vacant or underutilized homes of B.C. residents and two per cent on foreign-owned properties.
Chamberlain said he’s seen million-dollar deals fall apart because of the foreign buyers’ tax in Kelowna.
“Thank God it’s not here yet, but they are talking about maybe bringing it down here,” Chamberlain said.
“But hopefully not, because I can see the damage they’ve done to the market already.”