(Derek Craddock/paNOW Staff)

By Derek Craddock

TOUGH MARKET

A tough, competitive market for housing in Sask: SRA

Jun 13, 2022 | 2:00 PM

High inflation, another hike in the benchmark interest rate and higher house prices are making it harder for real estate in Saskatchewan.

With many residents now struggling to find a home or the right buyer, could bidding wars be in the cards for the province’s real estate market?

According to the Saskatchewan Realtors Association, the answer is no, however, the market is becoming more competitive.

Samantha Krahn speaks for the SRA and said the market recently has been fairly dynamic.

“We’ve seen a little bit of slowdown with the interest rate changes. The other kind of push and pull that’s happening is we have a really low supply of housing across the continuum in our province. It’s fairly pronounced in Saskatoon and Regina but even in other places like Prince Albert and Swift Current, a lot of those places really just don’t have the supply.”

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She added there is increased demand for housing but greater competition. Krahn also stated that many realtors are hearing that clients are either holding back because they can’t find what they’re looking for or discover they can’t qualify for a mortgage.

CEO of the SRA Chris Guérette said in the monthly report that despite some shifts in supply, the market remains exceptionally tight with less than four months of supply, something not seen since 2008.

As of last month, the benchmark price in the province reached $330,300, nearly one per cent higher than last month and four per cent higher than last year’s levels.

“Rising lending rates are expected to have some cooling impacts on housing demand,” said “While sales activity could be impacted in coming months, it will take some time for the market to return to more balanced conditions. The next step will be to undertake research and recommend targeted policies that foster building and smart growth.”

The numbers from the latest SRA report earlier this month confirm what Krahn and Guérette are sharing.

In May, the province only reported 1,814 sales, a drop of 1.8 per cent year over year. This, despite the number of listings increasing by 1.8 per cent.

(Saskatchewan Realtors Association)

Nationally, home sales dropped 12.6 per cent month-over-month, with listings dropping overall by just over two per cent.

(Canadian Real Estate Association)

One of the major culprits of the downturn: the stress test.

“It’s always been a bit of a challenge in Saskatchewan where we don’t have the prices that they (Vancouver, Toronto) do so it wasn’t really something that was necessary perhaps for a lot of us in the first place,” said Krahn.

“I’ve heard anecdotally from some of our members that they have seen clients that had qualified before that maybe can’t anymore and with inflation as well that’s compounding challenges for folks too.”

So, what are the solutions, if any?

“Our national body, the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) announced only a few months ago that they have begun exploring a pilot project,” said Krahn. It’s a start-up service called ‘Open Offers’ and its goal is to try to offer brokerage across the country the ability to post real-time contractual transactions so that folks who are putting in offers on a house can actually see the other offers.”

Krahn added the SRA is continuing its major research that will help paint a picture of the housing situation in Saskatchewan.

“It’s based on the regions that we report our stats on monthly so that we can actually help policy be better in terms of developers and what they actually need to build and how much affordable housing we need versus senior care and market housing. So, we’re really excited to get into that.”

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derek.craddock@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @PA_Craddock