Abundant listings give prospective home buyers upper hand in Vancouver

Vancouver's red hot property sector is showing signs of cooling as sales in the Canadian city dropped 10.1 percent in May in comparison with the same period a year earlier as an abundance of listings has made it a buyers' market.

In its monthly property report released Thursday, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) said the sales drop was largely due to the 7,014 property listings in May, the third consecutive month 7,000-plus listings of detached, attached and property units were offered.

The figure was up 48.2 percent from May 2009 when 4,733 listings were offered.

"We are close to that level where the seller either has to discount or lower the price or take the listing off the market," said local realtor James Wong of Sutton West Coast.

The Vancouver-based Malaysian who sells properties in the neighboring city of Richmond told Xinhua that not all sellers were desperate to sell and could possibly delist their properties.

"They just want to catch a good price for what is perceived to be the value of their home. But most of them at this point have already missed the peak," said Wong.


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