* The market update is a collection of bullet point notes I take from articles I read throughout the month

Residential

Single Family Detached: At $994,500, the Benchmark price for a single-family detached home in the Fraser Valley increased by 0.4% compared to May and, increased 3.6% compared to June 2019.

Townhomes: At $559,600, the Benchmark price for a townhome in the Fraser Valley increased by 0.8% compared to May and increased by 1.9% compared to June 2019.

Apartments: At $435,300, the Benchmark price for apartments/condos in the Fraser Valley increased by 0.4% compared to May and increased 3.3% compared to June 2019.

Commercial

General

- Most of the 215,000 Canadians who were born in Hong Kong live in just two of this country’s cities – and their overall numbers are marginally down from two decades ago, since many returned to Hong Kong. Nevertheless, 75,000 continue to reside in Metro Vancouver and 100,000 in Greater Toronto.
- Wages are much higher in Hong Kong than Canada and taxes are much lower, said the taxation specialist. That remains appealing to many
- If you want to have better career prospects, you move to Hong Kong,” Wu said. “Their pay is at least 50% higher than here, including in high tech. And the taxes come in a flat rate, unlike in Canada, which has progressive taxation.

- Led by land sales and the multi-family rental sector, the total dollar value of commercial real estate transactions in the Lower Mainland soared to $2.15 billion in the first three months of 2020, a 37.2% increase from the $1.57 billion recorded in the first quarter (Q1) of 2019
- There were 375 commercial real estate sales in Q1 2020, a 10.9% increase from the 338 sales in Q1 2019

Land

- There were 105 commercial land sales in Q1 2020, which is an 11.7% increase from the 94 land sales in Q1 2019. The dollar value of land sales was $853 million in Q1 2020, a 15.8% increase from $737 million in Q1 2019.

Multi-Family

- There were 15 multi-family land sales in Q1 2020, which is up 87.5% from eight sales in Q1 2019. The dollar value of multi-family sales was $626 million in Q1 2020, a startling 903.8% increase from $62 million in the same period a year earlier.

Office & Retail

- There were 135 office and retail sales in Q1 2020, which is down 3.6% from the 140 sales in Q1 2019. The dollar value of office and retail sales was $318 million in Q1 2020, a 14.9% decrease from $373 million in Q1 2019.
- Canadian retail sales fell by a staggering 26% in April to $35 billion.
- Sales were down in all provinces for the second consecutive month in April, leading the declines were Ontario (-33%) and Quebec (-28%). In BC, seasonally-adjusted retail sales were down by 21%, while Vancouver sales were down by 24%
- All subsectors were hit hard with the largest monthly declines reported in clothing (-67%), sporting/hobby (-50%), furniture stores (-47%), and at gas stations (-35%). The only increase was at building material and garden equipment stores (4%).
- E-commerce sales were up by 120% in April year-over-year
- The commercial agency reports that the number of subleases has increased from 37 at the end of 2019 to 90 this month, representing more than 500,000 square feet of space, as a direct result of the pandemic.
- Downtown Vancouver has about 24 million square feet of office space
- The subleases have pushed the vacancy rate in to 4%, up from 2.2% at the start of the year.
- Vancouver still has one of the lowest office vacancy rates in North America. Only six of the available subleases pushed back onto the downtown market are bigger than 10,000 square feet and only five are greater than 20,000 square feet.
- About 3.9 million square feet of new office space is under construction in Metro Vancouver, but two-thirds of that space is pre-leased, the study noted.
- The agency’s most conservative estimate is that the Vancouver office vacancy rate may reach 7% by 2024, still below what it considers a “balanced” market.

Industrial

- There were 120 industrial land sales in the Lower Mainland in Q1 2020, which is a 25% increase from the 96 sales in Q1 2019. The dollar value of industrial sales was $359 million in Q1 2020, a 10.1% decrease from $399 million in Q1 2019.

June Market Update for lower mainland commercial real estate