The Metro Vancouver real estate market is clearly cooling down, and nowhere is this happening faster than in the high-end detached home sector, an analysis of MLS data reveals.
This incredible mansion in Shaughnessy was completed in 2016 and was listed Nov. 14, 2017 for $35 million. Listing agent: Faith Wilson
Since May 1, 2018, only 43 detached homes in the Metro Vancouver region – stretching from Mission and Delta to the Sunshine Coast and Whistler – have sold above $7 million.
All 43 of those houses sold for below asking, averaging a discount of 16 per cent off the list price.
This compares with 94 Metro Vancouver home sales above $7 million during the previous 12-month period of May 1, 2017 to April 30 2018 – 89 of which sold under asking. In the 12 months before that – May 1, 2016 to April 30, 2017 – there were 97 sales above $7 million, 86 of which went for lower than their list price.
The highest-priced detached sale over the past 12 months was a grand, six-bedroom mansion in Vancouver’s priciest enclave of Shaughnessy, which sold for $26 million in May 2018 after six months on the market. That price may seem like a lot, but the house was listed in 2017 at $35 million, then reduced to $29,980,000.
After it was built, this home was listed by a different agent in April 2016 at an even higher price — $38.9 million — but did not sell at that time. Records also reveal that the property, which originally had a Tudor-style home, sold back in 2000 for $1.8 million.
However, the biggest price drop seen in the region’s $7 million-plus sector over the past year was the sale of this stunning West Vancouver house (see our listing photo gallery article here), which sold for $10.8 million, more than $6 million below the $16.88 million asking price.
Listing price reductions
This British Properties home, completed in 2018, was listed September 5 for $16,888,000. Listing agent: Haneef Virani
With high-end detached homes failing to sell, owners are turning to price reductions to shift their properties. Of the 209 detached houses currently listed above $7 million on Metro Vancouver’s MLS (as of May 3, 2019), a relatively few 28 have reduced their price since the home was listed.
This Caulfeild home, which boasts indoor-outdoor living facing the pool and ocean beyond, is listed for $22.88 million. Image via listing agent: Matt Gul, Personal Real Estate Corporation
But this does not include homes that failed to sell, were taken off the market and then quietly given a new listing at a lower price, which are much harder to quantify but seem to be numerous. Examples include this contemporary West Vancouver mansion, which was listed at $16.58 million back in July 2018 but now has a new listing at $13.6 million, and this “James Bond-style” oceanfront home, which also recently came back on the market at a $3 million discount. Even West Vancouver’s historic Kew House has yet to sell at its discounted price of $13.75 million.
However, other sellers are sticking to their desired price – such as the owner of an uber-cool Modernist waterfront home designed by Russell Hollingsworth. It was listed in February 2018 for $22.88 million, and the listing expired after a year when it didn’t sell. It was listed again on January 31, 2019 at the exact same price.
Of Metro Vancouver’s 209 detached houses currently listed above $7 million, the average number of days on the market is a whopping 141 – a far cry from the heady days of a few years ago.
