By ThinkPol Staff

The days when multimillion dollar teardowns in Metro Vancouver triggered bidding wars pushing the offers above the asking price seem to be over.

Three in four detached houses in Canada’s once hottest housing market sold below asking in November, according to home sales data sent to ThinkPol by a real estate industry whistleblower.

The data show 77% of single family homes in Metro Vancouver were sold for below asking last month, while only 17% commanded a sales price above asking.

The best bargains are to be had in Vancouver Westside and in the higher end of the market while homes in the outer suburbs in the lower end of the market are most likely to sell above asking, data shows.

The asking prices ThinkPol looked at were the final list price, which were often much lower than the original list price.

ThinkPol also found that many properties had been delisted and relisted at a lower price, thereby hiding the price drop and days on the market.

Home sales data is kept secret from the general public by Canada’s real estate boards, despite the Federal Court of Appeal upholding a lower court ruling that those figures should be made publicly available^[1]Toronto Real Estate Board v. Commissioner of Competition, 2017 FCA 236 (CanLII), , retrieved on 2017-12-20.

The industry insider claimed that they’re releasing the data told address what they see as unethical and deceptive practices of the industry.

“Just the other day, my colleague bragged about how she got her client to come ten percent over asking by blatantly lying to them ‘you have to make that offer or you’ll regret it if you get outbid’ knowing that property had just been delisted and relisted to reset the days on the market,” the insider told ThinkPol. “This is the way the industry has been, bending and twisting the numbers, trying to show that there is no slowdown in the market whatsoever, and real estate prices will continue to grow as before, and toying with people’s emotions to get them to overleverage themselves.”

The insider feels that ultimately, it is the government that is letting Vancouverites down.

“I sometimes feel absolutely disgusting being part of the industry,” the source said. “But it’s even more disgusting that the government has allowed such an unscrupulous bunch who possess no moral compass whatsoever to deceive ordinary hardworking Canadians into making really poor financial decisions.”

The whistleblower feels that Premier John Horgan’s new NDP government must address the housing crisis, which they blame on the BC Liberals, to stand a chance of re-election.

“The BC Liberal government had all the tool necessary at their disposal to bring prices down to more affordable levels, create the level of transparency the public desires, to punish tax evaders and money launderers, create rules that would prevent empty housing, create enforcement units, etc,” the insider said. “However, they chose to turn blind eye on the situation for years in exchange for large donations^[2] http://contributions.electionsbc.gov.bc.ca/pcs/SA1SearchResults.aspx?FilerSK=0&EDSK=0&FilerTypeSK=0&Contributor=realty&PartySK=0&elctrldstrct_sk=0&ED=(ALL)&FilerType=(ALL)&Filer=0&FilerName=(ALL)&Party=(ALL)&event_name=(ALL)&class_sk=0&class_name=(ALL)&DateTo=&DateFrom=&DFYear=&DFMonth=&DFDay=&DTYear=&DTMonth=&DTDay= and the NDP are now facing with some tough choices, and I seriously cannot see John Horgan or NDP having any chance of being re-elected if they don’t make those tough decisions.”

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[Photo Credit: BC Assessment]