Greater Victoria high-end home sales are mimicking strong sales numbers seen this year in major metropolitan areas.
A total of 132 residential properties have sold in 2014 for $1 million or more in the capital region, not including the Gulf Islands, the Victoria Real Estate Board said Tuesday.
That’s up 32 per cent from the 100 properties sold over the same period last year.
Luxury homes are a standard feature among Greater Victoria’s real estate offerings. Many are on the Oak Bay waterfront, in Saanich and North Saanich. The Victoria board’s multiple listing service shows 341 residential properties are on the market at $1 million or more.
These properties range upward from a single-family house on Gibson Court in Wedgewood Point near Cadboro Bay Village, listed for $1,019 million. The highest price tag is for a waterfront home in the Uplands on Humber Road listed at $16.998 million.
Across the country, there’s no loss of appetite for high-end real estate, according to Sotheby’s International Realty Canada.
The company said in a report released Tuesday that sales of homes priced at more than $1 million boomed in the first half of 2014, with all four key metropolitan areas covered — Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal — recording double-digit gains.
Vancouver and Toronto continue to lead the way, with sales of homes worth $1 million or more increasing 34 per cent compared with the first six months of 2013.
That was followed by Calgary with a 17 per cent increase and Montreal with an 11 per cent gain, even though Quebec’s largest city posted an overall decline in sales in 2013.
Sotheby’s said that given Canada’s strong economic fundamentals, improved consumer confidence and super-low lending rates, all markets are expected to gain momentum in the second half of the year. It added that it also expects international demand in top-tier real estate to remain robust.
The Sotheby’s said sales of high-end homes were strong in all segments, from single family to attached homes and condominiums in the first six months of 2014.
