Canadian real estate a world 'bargain': survey

CBC News

Vancouver is home to the most expensive 4-bedroom, single-family homes in Canada with an average price of $1.26 million, says Coldwell Banker. (Canadian Press)
Real estate in Canada is a relative bargain compared to homes in many other parts of the world, according to a global price survey by Coldwell Banker.

The survey also found typical executive homes were still affordable in many Canadian cities.

The real estate firm looks at the average price for a 2,200 square-foot, single-family home with about four bedrooms and 2½ baths - what it calls an "aspirational" home. This is the type of home that middle-management corporate transferees and move-up buyers typically look for, it said.

In Canada, a home like that costs an average of more than $1.26 million in Vancouver, the survey found. That figure topped the 35 markets Coldwell Banker surveyed in Canada.

But it also found that these type of executive homes were still affordable in many Canadian markets, with Charlottetown, Brantford, Ont., Moncton and Halifax among the eight Canadian markets with average executive home prices under $300,000.

"While Canadian home prices have been on the rise again following a brief market downturn, today's historically low interest rates have kept the dream of homeownership within reach for most of today's homebuyers," said John Geha, president of Coldwell Banker's Canadian operations.

"It is particularly interesting to compare the affordability levels now seen across North America and other global centres. Compared to many major markets throughout the world, Canadian real estate looks like a bargain," he said.

On the North American stage, La Jolla, Calif., tops the most-expensive list with an average price of $2.13 million US. Beverly Hills is in second spot, while Vancouver is 10th.

The most affordable move-up homes in North America are generally found in the U.S. Midwest, with Grayling, Mich., offering the cheapest executive real estate, at an average price of $112,675 US. Charlottetown narrowly missed making it into the top 10 most affordable markets in North America.

Outside North America, the range of four-bedroom home prices was wide.

Coldwell Banker surveyed real estate in 30 countries and found one of its "aspirational" homes in Singapore would set a buyer back by a list-topping $1.9 million US, while a similar-sized home in Salinas, Ecuador, would cost just $69,375 US.

Italy was well represented in the "most expensive" list. Milan, Florence and Rome all had average four-bedroom home prices well above the $1 million US mark.

New York was excluded from the survey because of a lack of comparable single-family homes, Coldwell Banker said.