Luxury real estate sales up 171% last year in Vancouver, sales of $10M+ homes up even more

A home at 5358 Kensington Cres. in West Vancouver, B.C., is pictured in an image from a Sotheby's International Realty listing. As of January 2022, the seven-bedroom, 8.5-bathroom estate is listed at $22.8 million.

Sellers of luxury real estate did well last year, data on the Vancouver market suggests. Sales of properties with price tags higher than $4 million were up a whopping 171 per cent year-over-year.

Data released by Sotheby's International Realty earlier this week included that 410 such properties were sold in the area in 2021. That total includes condos, attached homes and single-family homes.

It's a trend that wasn't limited to Vancouver, too.

Records fell in most of Canada's major metropolitan luxury markets, something Sotheby's attributes to buyers' "urgent, pandemic-influenced demand for housing mobility," as well as strengthened confidence in Canada's post-pandemic economic recovery.

As in non-luxury markets, demand quickly outpaced supply. Prices went up, inventory "eroded," and markets reached historic highs, Sotheby's report explains simply.

"Canada's real estate market was redefined in 2021," Sotheby's said.

The luxury market benefitted from a change in priorities – with more people working from home, buyers were less concerned about their commutes, and more concerned about space and security.

Low interest rates and record savings also didn't hurt, and Sotheby's noted seeing underlying anxiety from buyers concerned about investments made elsewhere, like on the stock market.

In Vancouver, that translated to the increase mentioned above for all luxury properties.

Sales jumped even more from 2020 to 2021 when looking at the ultra-luxury listings. Twenty-four properties priced over $10 million were sold last year, up 218 per cent from just 11 sold the year before.

The report does not address the buyers of homes at this price range, so it's unclear whether they were purchased by residents already living locally, and whether they were purchased by people intending to live there full time.

A report released last week from the Bank of Canada suggested a significant share of newer homes, at least, were purchased by repeat buyers and investors.

Of course it's unlikely many first-time buyers are looking at luxury real estate, but the report found that as home sales grew and prices skyrocketed – a trend realtor groups often tied to local buyers looking for more space during the pandemic – it was purchases by investors that grew the most. 

The Bank of Canada study looked only at mortgage data, however, so it does not capture homes bought with cash or by corporations.

Looking at lower-priced (relatively) homes, Sotheby's said broadening the scope to include all properties sold for prices higher than $1 million still shows an increase in 2021, compared to 2020. But sales were up 145 per cent, compared to in the higher-priced categories.

Sotheby's said 5,794 homes in this category were sold last year.

The category that saw the steepest growth was specifically single-family homes priced higher than $10 million. Those sales were up 240 per cent, compared to the previous year's.

Other markets saw steep growth when it came to the sale of luxury real estate last year, including in Toronto where sales of properties over $4 million was up 224 per cent from in 2020, and ultra-luxury property sales were up 238 per cent.

Calgary saw the greatest growth in sales over $1 million, which were up 222 per cent, and in Montreal, real estate listed at over $4 million was up 178 per cent from 2020.