Soaring sales of Canadian luxury homes in first quarter of 2010

The RE/MAX Upper End 2010 report notes a serious upswing in sales of luxury homes in Canada. The report highlights sales and trends in 13 major Canadian centres and 5 sub-markets. It ascribes the double and triple digit - depending on area - 12 month increase in sales to improved economic performance, increased personal wealth, immigration and foreign investment and forecasts a continuation of this trend.
High end homes start at $2 mil in Greater Vancouver, at $1.5 mil in Greater Toronto and Montreal Island and at lower prices in other areas down to $400K in St. John's.

Vancouver prices and number of sales keep increasing

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver reports that in March 10 compared to March 09
- the benchmark price of a residential properties is 20.3% higher and 2.8% above the previous high point of May 2008.
- the number of listings is 7.6% lower but 19% higher than in February 2010 (my comment: this was very much influenced by the Olympics)
- the number of sales was 38.5% higher but only 4.7% higher than in March 08 and 12.4% lower than in March 07.

HST and new homes

HST is set to be implemented on 1 July 2010 and would increase the price of new homes by 7% minus a maximum of $26,250. It would also increase the tax on many other items by the same percentage: second hand cars, all services, restaurant meals, hairdressers, gym memberships, etc. This evening the anti HST campaign of Bill vander Zalm was officially launched in Kitsilano, the riding of Premier Gordon Campbell who introduced the HST.