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Kelowna lagging as luxury home market heats up in Canada

This home at 6950 Lakeshore Road in Kelowna is on the market for $15.6 million.
This home at 6950 Lakeshore Road in Kelowna is on the market for $15.6 million.
Image Credit: Submitted/point2homes.com

The demand for luxury homes has taken off in many Canadian cities this year, compared to the last three months of 2022.

But a Re/Max Canada report released last week shows sales of these homes dropped in Kelowna by 17% over that time span.

“The traditional spring market has contributed to an upswing in home-buying activity in Kelowna, but the upward momentum has just begun to spark the city’s luxury market,” says a separate Re/Max report on the Kelowna Market.

The reports define luxury differently in each city with homes selling for more than $1.5 million considered luxury in Kelowna.

There were 54 sales of such homes in the first three months of this year, down 50% from the first quarter of the booming 2022 market.

The sales are also down from 65 in the last quarter of the year.

Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, the only other B.C. areas in the report, show sales increases of more than 20% each this year versus the last quarter of 2022.

Percentages can be deceiving since there were actually more luxury homes sold in Kelowna (54) than the Fraser Valley (30) or Vancouver (51).

Luxury, however, is defined as more than $3 million in the Fraser Valley and $4 million in Vancouver.

READ MORE: iN PHOTOS: Most expensive home for sale in Canada is in the Okanagan

“Much of the activity is being attributed to pent-up demand,” the national report says. “Listings, however, are few and far between in most areas of the country and finding the right home has proved challenging.”

That is true for Kelowna as well.

“Luxury properties situated on Kelowna’s Lake Okanagan, priced from $2 million to $5 million, continue to be most sought after, with inventory levels particularly tight this year,” the Kelowna report says. “Lakeview homes, homes with acreage, and properties with a pool round out the most desirable features for today’s discriminating buyers.”

Of the almost 350 homes listed for sale in Kelowna, close to half are priced in the $1.5-$2.2 million range, the report says.

The luxury segment accounted for about 21 per cent of single-family home sales last year but only 15% in the first quarter of this year.

“As Canada’s fastest growing metropolitan area, according to the 2021 Statistics Canada Census, the increase in out-of-town and out-of-province buyers should serve to further bolster home-buying activity in the months ahead as temperatures and sales heat up,” the Kelowna report says.

Bidding wars are becoming more common for luxury homes across the country. In the Greater Toronto Area, 20% of homes listed for more than $3 million sold at or above the asking price, the national report says.


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