North Okanagan Real Estate – Is This The Right Time To Sell?

By Michael Kinghorn

All the talk recently has been about how the Real Estate market has taken a down turn. While that may be the case in larger urban centres such as Toronto and Vancouver, we don’t think that is the case in the North Okanagan. They buyers may be leaving there, but they are coming here and this is definitely the right time to sell!

In fact we have had a positive end of May and start of June:

– A luxury Kalamalka lakeview home SOLD in 15 days
– Competing offers on $4MM+ development site
– 5 offers in on multi-unit apartment building with accepted offer within a week
– Silver Star homes/condos selling in off-season (3 sales this past week)

What can we point to? Well, two big recent decisions by the Provincial and Federal Governments has a lot to do with it. The two biggest factors are the ‘Speculation Tax’ and the Kinder Morgan pipeline decision. Let me explain.

With the BC Government’s decision to place a ‘Speculation Tax’ on homes that are not rented out for at least 6 months of the year in a number of communities (Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, Fraser Valley, Kelowna and West Kelowna) it has opened buyer’s eyes to the North Okanagan. The Lower Mainland home sales are down 35.1% year-over-year and those buyers are looking elsewhere.

The Federal government decision to push the Kinder Morgan pipeline forward has also had a positive impact for us. Albertans love the Okanagan and the feeling is mutual. Now that their economy has kick started and there are more dollars flowing into our region.

All this has benefitted sellers in the North Okanagan, especially on larger projects and vacation type properties. Home prices here are more affordable to the average buyer and there’s no tax on vacation properties that sit dormant for more than six months of the year.

As a seller, now is the right time to sell and get your home on the market.