Vancouver in Canada is one of the hottest real estate markets these days and one indication is how fast luxury homes are getting sold as soon as they are listed, even at a higher amount from the initial asking price.
As reported by The Globe and Mail, luxury properties would usually take three to four months before they find a buyer, but recently, some homes could sell even in two weeks of being in the market. Some of them could even receive millions of dollars in excess of their asking price. For instance, owners of a mansion in Belmont Avenue took home $31.1 million from the sale, $5.51 million above the assessed value of the property.
These luxury homes sales contributed to the record sales in Greater Vancouver in March wherein 5,173 properties were sold, a 27.4 percent increase from last year. Fraser Valley, meanwhile, recorded 3,006 homes sold last month.
Dan Morrison, president of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, said the improved sales activity began in 2013. It was driven by several factors, primarily the appetite of foreign investors. As recently reported here on Realty Today, NBF said that 33 percent of real estate investment in Vancouver are actually from overseas. Population growth, low mortgage rates, limited housing supply and a buoyant economy are also some of the main contributing factors according to Morrison.
Earlier this month, Canada was hailed as the world's top luxury real estate market. According to Huffington Post, Knight Frank's latest world wealth report showed that prices of high-end properties in the city rose 24.5 percent in a year, 14 times faster than the average of the rest of the world. The surge in prices is largely attributed to the foreign demand as investors take advantage of the low Canadian dollar to get more properties.