It's a seller's market in the real estate business
Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (May 09/01) - The city real estate market is continuing to heat up, predicts the president of the Yellowknife Real Estate Board.
An influx of workers in the non-renewable resources sector, an increase last month in the limit on the purchase price eligible for five per cent downpayments and a two per cent rental vacancy rate make this a seller's market, according to Shane Clark.
Clark, co-owner of Homelife Sunrise Real Estate, said in recent months he's received calls from people in South Africa, Australia, Belgium, California and France looking for property in Yellowknife.
"Generally, I would say the amount of properties for sale is lower," said Clark. "We're down to very little for rent and we don't have a lot of people leaving town like there was a few years ago."
Clark said the territorial government's $10,000 downpayment subsidy two years ago caused an artificial bump in the market.
He added there are currently about one-third the listings now on the market compared with 1998, when the program was in effect.
"I think we're going to see a natural influx of building, the kind we haven't seen since 1995," Clark said.
The Canadian Mortgage Housing Corporation last month increased the limit on home purchase prices eligible for a five per cent downpayment from $175,000 to $250,000.
