Richmond home sales and listings fell in April, said real estate board

Real estate activity in Richmond seems to have dropped again after the Bank of Canada raised interest rates to curb inflation.

Listings and completed sales continued to drop in Richmond in April – as well as across the region – all the while home prices continued going up, according to the latest report from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV).

The benchmark price for a single-family in Richmond was about $2.18 million in April – up less than one per cent from March but up by almost 16 per cent from a year ago.

All residential homes – single-family, townhouses and condos - in Richmond were up on average 18.2 per cent from a year ago with the benchmark price at about $1.25 million.

Some realtors told the Richmond News that the slowdown in sales probably started because the Bank of Canada increased interest rates on April 13 in order to curb inflation. 

However, the News noted that home sales slowed down even before the interest rate hikes. 

For example, the total number of home sales in Richmond was 555 in March, a significant decline compared with March 2021 when 761 home sales were completed.

The REBGV also reports that home sales in the Greater Vancouver region totalled 4,344 this past March, a 23.9 per cent decrease from the 5,708 sales recorded in March 2021. 

The Bank of Canada noted the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and supply disruptions caused by the war are the primary drivers prompting the increase in interest rates.

Home listings and sales down

Listings of all different homes types in Richmond dropped from 878 in March to 750 in April.

Furthermore, 20 fewer home sales were completed in April (425 sold) compared to March (455 sold).

And this isn’t an isolated situation.

For example, home sales in North Vancouver also dipped from 343 in March to 275 in April. Burnaby showed the same trend with total home sales decreasing from 525 in March to 388 in April.

The real estate board said residential home sales in the region totalled 3,232 in April, down by about 1,100 sales the month before, and down by almost 1,700 from a year ago.

Listings across the region also decreased by 8.5 per cent in April, with 6,107 homes listed for sale in April. This is more than 23 per cent fewer listings than a year ago.

"So far this spring, we’ve seen home sales ease down from the record-breaking pace of the last year,” said Daniel John, Chair of REBGV.

“While a small sample size, the return to a more traditional pace of home sales that we’ve experienced over the last two months provides hopeful home buyers more time to make decisions, secure financing and perform other due diligence such as home inspections.”