I love following the real estate market. In my spare time (okay so I don’t really have spare time anymore) I love scrolling through listings. Now, it was my assumption, like many of the global markets, that my hometown’s housing market would also come to a halt. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
It’s no secret Covid forced entirely new ways in which we live. It’s all-too-common to hear the words ‘that’s the way we did things pre-Covid’ and ‘this is the new norm’. And while I don’t want to downplay the devastation some of these forced shifts caused and are causing, this post will focus on a positive shift: The Greater Victoria real estate market. (For those of you who may not know, Victoria is the capital of British Columbia, Canada, and located on Vancouver Island).
You may be thinking, how could a pandemic cause a flurry of activity for buyers and sellers? What’s the ‘new norm’ of real estate here and how could prospective buyers or sellers position themselves for success? This fascinated me, and I felt many of you would be curious too. So I turned to Victoria real estate expert and realtor Danielle Moreau to explain.
Q: What happened to the Greater Victoria real estate market when Covid hit in March? What did you notice?
A: It’s no surprise Covid put a major pause on the real estate market in March. Most sellers and buyers wanted to respect the recommended guidelines for social distancing, as did many real estate agents.
Understandably, sellers and tenants did not want anyone entering their home and tenants were able to refuse showings altogether. Buyers also felt apprehensive about viewing homes, so the market came to a bit of a halt.
Exceptions to this were vacant properties as well as buyers who had already sold and needed a place to live.
Q: What did you experience as the months went on and the province shifted phases of the pandemic?
A: As restrictions began to lift, we started to see a lot more buyer and seller confidence in the market, especially because there were so few cases of Covid on Vancouver Island.
Once sellers felt ready to put their homes up for sale, the buyers came… and in droves! We saw a huge pent up demand in the market and that, fueled by exceptionally low inventory, created a spring market in the summer.
Many properties saw multiple offers and the most sought-after product was (and still is) single family detached homes in the core of Victoria. This busyness continued into fall and we are still experiencing a red-hot market leading into winter.
Also interesting, we started seeing more out-of-province buyers looking to purchase. We have seen many Alberta and Ontario buyers decide to make a move earlier than expected. Many of these buyers are now working from home so this new flexibility allows them the opportunity to move.
Q: What protocols do you experience as well as implement when meeting clients, hosting open houses, going to open houses, etc? Who sets these guidelines?
A: For a few weeks, the Victoria Real Estate Board suspended our open house website to discourage agents from hosting any. Then, the ‘virtual open house’ was born!
A majority of agents began implementing new business practices including hosting live open houses on Facebook, Zoom, etc.
As for private showing protocols, most listing agents sent liability waivers to buyers agents prior to confirming a showing, which included questions like “have your clients travelled outside of Canada over the last 14 days?”. Upon arrival of a private showing, buyers agents were encouraged to bring hand sanitizer, masks, gloves, and to ask their clients to not touch anything in the home. These practices continue to be our new norm.
Most agents also don’t double book showings to ensure there isn’t more than one buyer in a home at a time. Agents are also doing Zoom meetings rather than face-to-face in order to keep distance while maintaining a personal experience. Electronic signatures have also been a great tool in our business. Buyers and sellers have the ability to sign a contract electronically from the comfort of their own home.
Q: What are the most important things you’d want prospective sellers to know about the current market? Is now a good time to sell? Why/why not?
A: Particularly in the detached home market, we’re continuing to see a large pent up demand of buyers and we simply don’t have enough product to meet the needs of this segment.
Multiple offers continue to be the new norm so if you’re thinking of selling, now is a great time.
We expect activity to remain quite busy well into 2021 if Vancouver Island continues to keep Covid cases low. Interest rates are also expected to stay low so we expect there to be a lot of buyers continuing their search.
Q: What are the most important things you’d want prospective buyers to know about the current market? Is now a good time to buy? Why/why not?
A: As mentioned before, interest rates are extremely low. We are even seeing rates dip less than 2%, which is a huge incentive to get into the market or make a lateral move.
Although the detached home market is quite competitive, if you have a great real estate agent in your court, you should be able to secure something in a reasonable amount of time.
The condo and townhome market is less competitive at the moment as we’re seeing more inventory. So you should see a good selection to choose from and a little more room for negotiation.
Q: Now that it’s fall, and we’ll soon be heading into winter, what do you think will happen to the market?
A: What happens heading into winter depends on a couple of different factors. If Vancouver Island continues to keep our Covid cases low, we should see the market continue to remain steady into 2021. And if inventory remains low and buyer demand remains high, this too will lead us into a busy next few weeks.
Unfortunately, none of us have a crystal ball so time will tell, but many people watching the market predict activity to remain busy.
Q: As a realtor in Greater Victoria, what do you feel surprised you the most from this past year?
A: I honestly thought Covid was going to have a hugely negative effect on the real estate market given many people lost their jobs and because a large portion of our economy was negatively affected.
I would not have imagined Victoria would have had one of the busiest summer markets on record and that it would carry into fall and winter.
We shall see what 2021 brings but looking forward to seeing what does!
Are you looking to buy or sell in Greater Victoria? You can get in touch with Danielle and the Moreau Real Estate team here!