Demand for luxury Vancouver condos outstrips available supply, says Canadian developer

Vancouver’s luxury condo market will continue to spiral higher despite a 15 per cent tax for foreign buyers and tightened capital controls in China, according to a Canadian real estate developer.

The city with the most expensive housing market in Canada is still a draw for Hong Kong and mainland Chinese homebuyers seeking a long-term investment destination, said Ian Gillespie, the founder of luxury residential property developer Westbank Projects.

“We have so little product to sell that it just means instead of having three times as many buyers, now we have two times as many buyers as sellers,” Gillespie told the South China Morning Post.

Vancouver’s property market has been cooling since the provincial government imposed a 15 per cent tax on overseas buyers in August to help cool the market.

The number of residential units sold in February was down 41.9 per cent from a record number a year ago and a 7.7 per cent below the 10-year average, according to the Real Estate Board o f Greater Vancouver.

A benchmark price index went down 2.8 per cent over the past six months, although it edged up 1.2 per cent compared to January.