The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver has released stats for August which show mixed results amid a general slowdown of sales activity since May of this year. A sample of selected areas in Metro Vancouver shows pricing as flat or in decline during the summer.

Year over year pricing is in slight decline pretty much across the board, with the exception of some of the Fraser Valley suburbs which did not exhibit significant price increases over the past two years. Pitt Meadows condos, for example, have shown a slight increase of 1.2% since May 2012. Other markets with much higher levels of new inventory, such as North Burnaby, have declined about 2.5% over the summer, and have remained relatively flat since 2010.

Prices are continuing to come off on the Westside of Vancouver, which was one of the hottest markets in 2010/2011 and was the basis for much of the commentary on the health of the overall residential market.

The HPI for single family homes on the Westside declined 2.5% in August alone, and is down over 6% since May 2012. The HPI remains 20% above where it was in August 2010, indicating that with a prolonged lack of sales activity, there may be a further decline in store. Between June and August, sales volumes were down 50% over 2011.

Valuations for office buildings in Burnaby have risen over the past ten years amid declining cap rates and rising rental rates. The average value for office building sales in the past two years has been hovering around $200 / SF.

This market is predominantly characterized by larger office complexes, interspersed with smaller local office and strata business park office. Newly built buildings in the core areas such as Glenlyon office park and Canada Way corridor have achieved values over $250 / SF, with older product in local residential areas and industrial areas reaching below $100 / SF.

Cap rates have generally decline from an average above 8.0% to decline below 6.50%; a trend consistent with other suburbs in Vancouver.

Investment activity in this market has been relatively constrained given a lack of available product. As we reported in July, Bosa acquired a sizeable office asset located just off Canada Way at Sperling Avenue, for $33,000,000.

In terms of new supply, Metrotower 3 is currently under construction and is expected to complete in 2014. The leasing market remains in favour of tenants with a reported Q2 2012 vacancy rate of 11.2% (source: Colliers).

Resales volume for single family houses in East Vancouver have slowed somewhat over the past few months, in keeping with the trend for Vancouver towards a buyer’s market. August 2012 appears as though it will the slowest August for resales in several years. It is likely that there will be a flat or modest decline in pricing if sales volumes remained depressed over a period of months; however, pricing up to August 2012 did not appear to be showing a downward trend.

As of September 1, 2012, there were 662 active listings for single family homes in East Vancouver. The average asking price of these listings is $1,058,000. 286 listings (43%) are over $1 Million.

(August 2012 are a preliminary estimate and do not represent final stats for August)

Source: REBGV stats

Values for apartment buildings in Surrey have grown steadily over the past 10 years, a trend expected to continue with new supply of rental units generally limited to new condo projects. More affordable rental units tend to be limited to older rental stock.

This market is predominantly characterized by low-rise buildings and complexes over 20-years of age. The average sales value over the past five years in this market is just over $100,000 per unit.

With a limited stock of apartment buildings per capita relative to other municipalities such as Vancouver and New Westminster, investment activity in this market has been relatively confined to less than a dozen transactions each year. Cap rates have fallen steadily as well, to average just over 6.0% currently.

The prospects for this market are generally positive, with new supply limited to areas of residential development such as Surrey City Centre. According to CMHC, vacancy rates for apartments are approximately 3.7%; this is higher than the Metro Vancouver average, but still in healthy territory. Average rents range from $610 for bachelors, up to $982 for 3-bedroom units. CMHC estimates that there are over 29,000 condos in the Fraser Valley, of which approximately 21% are rented at rates averaging 10-20% higher than purpose built rental.

Commercial real estate market remains stable, new inventory expands.

Metro Vancouver’s commercial real estate market remains stable, according to the latest CBRE Ltd. reports.

The company’s second-quarter industrial report for the region noted that the overall availability rate of industrial property remained unchanged from the first quarter’s 7.3 per cent. The regional vacancy rate rose 30 basis points to 4.7 per cent but has risen from a two-year low reported in the first three months of the year.