Canadian Luxury Real Estate Market Report, Engel & Völkers, year-end-2023

Please click on the button below to download the Canadian Luxury Real Estate Market Report. Significant time, consideration, and effort goes into producing this report every year. It is filled with great information, primarily from Managing Brokers at Engel & Völkers shops across Canada. I highly encourage you to read at least the Vancouver segment.

The Vancouver segment of the report can be found on Page 28, and is overall aligned with my personal take on the luxury market. “Vancouver’s luxury real estate market defies flux in 2023, seeing unyielding stability in $1 - 3.99 million home price averages.”

Canadian Luxury Real Estate Market Report

My Take

I always find the yearly reports from both Engel & Völkers and other brokerages are an extremely good indicator of the year to come. I find that while many reports published in the real estate industry prefer to forecast positivity, the underlying tone between years differs drastically on what’s expected in the year to come. This year’s report has a subdued tone to it, rather than some years that beam with accomplishments of the year gone by, and its forecast of the year to come.

Is it a good time to buy?

One clear pattern I’ve seen in Vancouver real estate is that market upswings are huge, and yet market slow downs are generally quite minimal and short-lived. Outside of this report, I also see many Realtors® forecasting major 2024 gains in all segments in the market. I personally do not believe this will be the case, though I expect there to be slight gains in 2024 of about 3%-4% across the Vancouver market, likely followed by double digit increases in 2025. I believe 2024 is a perfect time to find some excellent deals with the expectation that there will be more major gains in 2025. Once the market has shifted, this gain will happen almost overnight. If you don’t purchase prior to the gain you are stuck paying the increased asking prices with increased competition. Sales history also plays a very important part of reselling your property down the road, buying in a historically slow time helps justify a significantly higher price to Buyers down the road.

Is it a good time to sell?

I think it’s a better time to sell luxury property than in late 2022 or 2023, though perhaps not as good as 2025. This really comes down to for what personal reason you’re holding onto your real estate. You may be holding a property for all the wrong reasons, and while your property may fetch more in 2025 or 2026, a shifted investment in another area could easily outperform your current holding, or simply improve your overall happiness. I am a strong believer that you should never hold onto a property that you already wish to sell, especially one you’re living in personally and are dissatisfied with. Doing so is a weight to your life that you otherwise will not have.

I’m always available to discuss your personal circumstances. Even if you think you may sell a year or two from now, please reach out and we can formulate what strategy is best for you going forward.