Has the pandemic caused you to postpone the sale of your home for fear of finding no buyers and selling at a loss?
Homebuyers aren’t necessarily turning their backs on the real estate market. Rather, the problem is that more and more buyers are no longer finding homes to buy, since their numbers have dropped significantly since the arrival of the coronavirus.
A year ago, in April 2019, the Quebec housing market had 41,221 listings waiting to be snapped up. A year later, in April 2020, that number had fallen sharply. According to statistics provided by the Association professionnelle des courtiers immobiliers du Québec (APCIQ), there were 30,608 homes for sale last month. This represents a 26% drop in the number of listings compared to last year.
Prices On the Rise
Normally, in times of crisis, the number of listings is high, the number of bank repossessions increases and demand decreases.
On paper, there are currently fewer homes for sale. Last month, the number of transactions was also down 61% year-on-year.
But on the ground, buyers haven’t necessarily disappeared. That’s what real estate broker Francis Lavoie, who is active in the Greater Montreal area, is finding out. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, he has noticed that around forty additional buyers are contacting him every week to buy a home. However, he notes that these buyers have to deal with an unusually low supply market. Many are waiting for more listings to find their dream home.
In any case, the current context for selling a home may not be as unfavorable as you might think, but that depends on your region. In the Montreal region, compared to April 2019, single-family home prices were up 9% last month. But for Quebec as a whole, growth was lower, at just 1%.
TIPS
- *Pandemic or not, there will always be a few hard-to-sell homes that linger for a long time on sales websites. This is particularly true of homes that are priced too high, or those with a number of problems that have the effect of scaring off buyers.
- *If, because of the coronavirus, you’ve decided to wait to sell your home, I recommend you stop hesitating and take action. The buyers are there, especially in the greater Montreal area.
- *If you receive an offer and the purchase price doesn’t suit you, you’re still free to refuse it, and take your chances selling your home. Who knows, there may be someone out there looking for a house like yours…
