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Vancouver Island Real Estate Board 2018 Buyers Profile

Posted on August 2nd, 2019 at 7:28 pm

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The VIREB Buyer Profile is a report containing results of a survey completed by buyers of residential property and corresponding
Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) information summarizing ‘home characteristics’ on Vancouver Island, north of Victoria. The survey and data is a result of 8,428 survey respondents from within the board area.

We’ve extracted some of the key data and charts and have the information below. A link to the full profile is at the bottom of this page as well for you to download.


Home Type

The top-three home types were ‘Single-Family’ at 54.7%, ‘Condominium (Apt)’ at 12.1%, and ‘Condominium (Twnhse)’ at 8.4%. The ‘Single-Family’ home type category ranged from 48.7% in the Comox Valley sub-area to 68.3% in the Port Alberni/West Coast sub-area.

These results were consistent with those from the 2017 survey.


Selling Price Range

For ease of interpretation, home selling prices were categorized into $50,000 increments up to $1 million. Above $1 million, prices were combined and totalled 239 sales in 2018, an increase from 226 sales in 2017, 145 sales in 2016, and significantly more than 63 sales in 2015.

In 2018, the top-three categories for the board area were $350,001-$400,000 at 10.9%, $400,001-$450,000 at 10.7%, and $450,001-$500,000 at 10.1%, totalling 31.7% of all sales.


Purchased as Retirement Residence (Yes or No)

The proportion of respondents buying their home for retirement purposes was 58.8%. This proportion did not vary significantly by zone, ranging from 51.4% in the Port Alberni/West Coast sub-area to 75.3% in the Parksville/Qualicum sub-area.

These results decreased from 56.8% in 2016 to 56.3% in 2017, but increased to 58.8% in 2018.


Board Area – Typical Buyer

This table represents the highest-frequency or most common value for each category, illustrating the ‘typical’ buyer profile for 2018.


The VIREB 2018 Buyer Profile

VIREB 2018 Buyer Profile