Ottawa, July 6, 2016 - Members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board sold 1,985 residential properties in June through the Board’s Multiple Listing Service® System, compared with 1,691 in June 2015, an increase of 17.4 per cent. The five-year average for June sales is 1,717.
“Sales this past month contributed not only to the highest June on record, it also turned out to be the highest sales in any month ever in the history of the Ottawa market,” remarked Shane Silva, President of the Ottawa Real Estate Board. “The closest comparable sales figures are from May 2009 with 1,967 units sold. Normally the resale market has a slight dip in units sold from May to June each year. May is routinely the peak month for units sold; however, this year June sales increased by 3.3 per cent over May.”
“It’s hard to say what fuelled this surge for June. It could be a combination of great weather and buyer activity from other markets, or it could be an anomaly. We will be closely watching the trend over the summer when sales typically slow down as buyers turn their attention to summer activities,” Silva went on to explain.
June sales included 331 in the condominium property class, and 1,654 in the residential property class. The condominium property class includes any property, regardless of style (i.e. detached, semi-detached, apartment, townhouse, etc.), which is registered as a condominium, as well as properties which are co-operatives, life leases, and timeshares. The residential property class includes all other residential properties.
“Year-to-date units sold for the first half of 2016 are also performing quite well compared to the first half of last year, up 5.4 per cent. While year-to-date average sale price remains the same compared to last year,” says Silva. “A total of 3,220 residential and condo properties were listed in June, capping the month off with approximately 8,300 properties on the market, down 11.5 per cent from June 2015.”
The average sale price of a residential-class property sold in June in the Ottawa area was $399,382, a decrease of 1.3 per cent over June 2015. The average sale price for a condominium-class property was $264,913, a decrease of 2.4 per cent over June 2015. The Board cautions that average sale price information can be useful in establishing trends over time but should not be used as an indicator that specific properties have increased or decreased in value. The average sale price is calculated based on the total dollar volume of all properties sold.
“Residential two-storey and bungalows continue to have the highest concentration of buyers in June,” says Silva. “In addition to residential and condominium sales, OREB Members have assisted clients with renting over 1,500 properties since the beginning of the year.”
