After a relatively cool year on the market, a new report predicts Whistler home prices will rebound in 2025.
The 2024 Winter Recreational Property Report, compiled by Royal LePage, forecast the median price of a single-family detached home in Whistler would rise nine per cent next year, buoyed by growing inventory and declining interest rates.
“Buyers are coming back to the market,” said Frank Ingham, associate broker for Royal LePage Sussex. “A lot of that certainly has to do with interest rates. We’ve had four consecutive decreases.”
The Bank of Canada lowered its policy interest rate on Oct. 23, to 3.75 per cent, and is expected to do so again on Dec. 11. If that’s the case, Ingham believes buyers will look to re-enter the market before a possible surge in pricing come the spring.
“Whistler buyers are very knowledgeable and want to get the best bang for their buck,” Ingham told Pique. “I think we’re very close to the bottom of the rate chart and that will sway people.”
The anticipated rebound is also partly a reflection of the sluggish year Whistler’s market has had. In a period when consumers of all means tightened their purse strings, real estate transactions were down 25 per cent in Whistler. Home prices reflected that dearth of sales. The median cost of a single-family detached home fell three per cent, to $3,569,100, in the first nine months of 2024, while the median price of a condominium dropped 12.4 per cent, to $583,600.
“It was overall a softening of the market,” Ingham said.
Recent changes to the capital gains tax inclusion rate didn’t lead to a sudden rush of transactions in most markets, but Ingham said Whistler proved the rare exception. Multiple clients he worked with were motivated to sell before the new legislation came into effect.
“The increase to the capital gains inclusion rate was the catalyst for some clients to pull the trigger early on selling their winter property, or accept a lower offer price—that was previously off the table—in order to move a sale along,” he said in the report.
Specific legislation that doesn’t apply to Whistler, such as the foreign buyers tax and the speculation and vacancy tax, is another reason the resort remains attractive to prospective buyers.
“That’s a plus over anywhere else,” Ingham said.
While he doesn’t foresee a rush of American buyers to the resort, the broker did note Donald Trump’s incoming U.S. presidency has driven interest from south of the border.
“There has been interest and the Royal LePage webpage went nuts, with over a 100-per-cent increase in inquiries from the States,” Ingham said. “At least they’re looking but are they really going to move? Tough to say. The stock market had a huge uptick [following Trump’s election], so a lot of people made some money in the last while. That sometimes relates to buying houses and buying cars when you’re making a bit of extra dough.”
Across B.C.’s popular ski regions, the median price of a single-family detached home decreased 2.6 per cent in the first nine months of the year, to $1,729,200, while the median price of a condo also fell 2.6 per cent in that space, to $477,500. In the province’s recreational market, the median price of a single-family detached home is predicted to increase 8.5 per cent over the next 12 months.
