“2021 is set up to be a strong year,” : BC Real Estate Association on northern housing sales

A 12.3% spike in unit sales across the north is being projected by the BC Real Estate Association after releasing its first-quarter forecast.

This would equate to around 48-hundred homes changing hands, squashing last year’s sales increase of 4%.

Chief Economist, Brendon Ogmundson told Vista Radio a number of factors are pointing to a strong year.

“2021 is set up to be a very strong year, we have record-low interest rates, we have a lot of momentum coming from the remainder of 2020, we also have a recovering economy and for the north we have a huge construction boom setup from those LNG projects.”

“I think that is going to add up to a 12% increase in sales this year, not quite to a record but to a very strong level about 48-hundred sales across the region.”

Ogmundson expects record-low interest rates to play a major role in driving up housing sales in BC.

The Bank of Canada reaffirmed its plans to keep its overnight policy at 0.25 percent until it sees slack in the Canadian economy – this may not occur until 2023.

“We saw in the second half of 2020 a huge response from record low mortgages rates, those rates are going to be around for a long time and so that leads to very strong sales in models and we get to see that play out.”

BC is projected to hit a four-year high of 108,680 unit sales in 2021, before taking a dip the following year.