VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 24, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- An annual report out from CENTURY 21 Canada today reveals house prices across Canada are maintaining their strength, while the number of sales is coming back after a decline earlier in the spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the local stories vary across the country, the common theme is of house prices seeing modest changes per square foot over the same period last year. One exception is Montreal, which has seen prices increase dramatically since 2019 – though downtown prices still remain lower than those in Vancouver and Toronto.
In its annual, nationwide study, CENTURY 21 Canada compared the price per square foot of properties sold between January 1 and June 30 this year, compared to the same period last year.
“When the pandemic took hold in Canada in mid-March, there was a lot of uncertainty about what would happen to real estate sales during the typically busy spring market,” says Brian Rushton, Executive Vice-President of CENTURY 21 Canada. “What we have seen is that after a dip in the number of sales early in the pandemic, the pace of sales has returned to near-normal levels as real estate agents and companies innovated new ways of doing things. The real estate industry has proved resilient through the past several months. And even further, prices have held steady as well.”
As it has in many sectors of Canada’s economy, COVID-19 has prompted innovations in how real estate operations, with the adoption of technologies allowing more physical distancing and reducing contact. CENTURY 21 Canada has made additional tools available to sales representatives in order to facilitate the change. Virtual tours are now very popular so that a seller does not have strangers or large numbers of people in their homes. The company encourages all agents to host online open houses through Facebook Live. CENTURY 21 Canada has also recently partnered with an international company, EyeSpy360, which allows a virtual home tour that can be done as a walk-through and presented to a client via email or a live presentation.
This is the fourth consecutive year CENTURY 21 Canada has gathered and released this report of local prices per square foot.
“As we are in our fourth year of gathering this data, we continue to see that real estate is not a national picture, it’s really what’s happening in your local community,” says Mr. Rushton. “No matter where in Canada you live buying a home is a great investment, especially if you’re making a long-term purchase.”
CENTURY 21 Canada’s annual survey of data on the price per square foot (PPSF) of properties gathers and compares sales data from its franchises across Canada from January 1 to June 30 of each year. By looking at the price per square foot at the same time each year the firm is able to get a good idea of how prices have changed over time for similar properties. This year’s survey compares 2019 prices with this year’s results, while also providing available 2017 and 2018 data.
See full PPSF study results here.
For more information please contact:
Peak Communicators
Shawn Hall
Phone: (604) 619-7913
Email: shawn@peakco.com
About CENTURY 21 Canada®
CENTURY 21 Canada Limited Partnership (century21.ca) is a real estate master franchisor with complete rights to the CENTURY 21® brand in Canada.
The CENTURY 21 System is one of the world’s largest and most recognized residential real estate franchise sales organization with approximately 9,400 independently owned and operated franchised real estate offices worldwide and over 127,000 sales professionals. CENTURY 21 provides comprehensive technology, marketing, training, management, and administrative support for its members in 80 countries and territories worldwide.
How the information was gathered by CENTURY 21 Canada
CENTURY 21 franchisees were asked to help come up with the average price-per-square-foot in their market. However, calculating a precise number is not an exact science as every office and province tracks statistics slightly differently. As a result, some have used either the average or benchmark prices (depending on the market) and tracked average square footage in sales from January 1 - June 30, 2020. The price-per-square-foot was calculated from those numbers. Each franchisee has confirmed that that the numbers provided are an accurate representation of their market. Some real estate boards adjust their statistics after the deadline so, in some markets, 2019 numbers were adjusted to better reflect the year over year trends.