Housing developments seeing shift in focus to renters over buyers

New home construction is now believed to be among the many local area economic sectors impacted by the final investment decision delays in LNG project development.

With an increasing number of new homes on the market, there is a growing number of reports of developers focusing more and more on renters for future occupancy.

Chad Bordeleau of Century 21 Energy Realty stopped short of calling the current situation an oversupply of new homes, describing it instead as a healthy supply, but he also said:

Recall the BC Northern Real Estate Board put the average selling price of a residential detached house in Fort St. John at the end of September at roughly $429,000 — making this the only one of the board’s 15 member communities over $310,000.

However, Mr. Bordeleau says the board numbers don’t tell the entire local pricing story especially when you factor in rental rates.

For those interested in comparative numbers, you only have to back up five years to find BC-NREB confirmation of a dramatic increase with 2010 numbers, showing half of the 319 single family homes sold that year had a purchase price of less than $308,000.

However, if you think that’s dramatic, the consensus view seems to be if just one proposed LNG project gets the green light next year, the spread between the current five year differential and the next one, could look like Secretariat versus Sham, in the 1973 Belmont Stakes.