Vancouver, BC – March 14, 2018. The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) reports that a total of 6,206 residential unit sales were recorded by the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) across the province in February, a 5.7% decrease from the same period last year. The average MLS® residential price in BC was $748,327, up 8.8% from the previous year. Total sales dollar volume was $4.64 billion, a 2.6% increase from February 2017.

“More stringent mortgage qualification rules for conventional borrowers are dampening housing demand in the province,” said Cameron Muir, BCREA Chief Economist. “Since the new rules came into effect, BC home sales have fallen more than 26%, on a seasonally adjusted basis.”

Previous mortgage policy tightening has negatively impacted housing demand for a period of four to seven months, with the largest impact occurring in the third month after implementation.

Year-to-date, BC residential sales dollar volume was up 15.9% to $8.47 billion, compared with the same period in 2017. Residential unit sales increased 4.1% to 11,516 units, while the average MLS® residential price was up 11.3% to $735,755.

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