Edmonton’s residential real estate has been in a downturn for the past five years.Home buyers in Alberta’s capital remain on the sidelines, boosting the rental market as residential sales continue to lag.
The Altus report says that, “after improving in 2017, total new multifamily sales [townhouse and apartment combined] reversed down again. Total sales for the year reached only about 1,300 units in 2018, down by about one-third from 2017.” There was some positive momentum for new townhouse sales, but the plunge in new condo sales resulted in an overall decrease in new multifamily sales, pegged at 244 – far below the 323 sales registered in first quarter 2018.
Michael Brodrick, chairman of the Realtors Association of Edmonton, says buyers are firmly in the driver’s seat in the city’s residential market. “Housing is a continuum of choices,” Mr. Boukall explained. “There are a number of different factors which make it difficult to pin a purchase decision to one economic indicator.”