From Vancouver to Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal, Canada’s luxury property market is on fire.

Sotheby’s International Realty Canada reported this week that the country’s top-tier housing market has posted “record-breaking levels of activity and prices” in the first half of 2021.

This comes in the wake of “renewed confidence in Canada's post-pandemic return and economic recovery”, and amid “eroding luxury real estate inventory”.

The Sotheby’s report Tuesday (July 13) devoted separate sections for the four major metropolitan markets, starting with Vancouver.

“Historically low-interest rates, pandemic-driven changes in housing needs, and enduring local and global confidence in the City of Vancouver’s real estate market set every segment of the city’s luxury residential housing segment ablaze in the first half of 2021,” the real-estate company stated.

In the first half of 2021, luxury residential property sales over $4 million (single-family homes, attached homes and condominiums) rose 152 percent year-over-year to 232 properties sold.

Sotheby’s reported that “ultra-luxury” residential sales over $10 million quadrupled to 16 properties sold compared to four sold during the first half of 2020, all within the single-family home market.

Also, luxury property sales between $2 million and $4 million increased 114 percent year-over-year to 872 properties sold.

Meanwhile, $1 million to $2 million property sales posted year-over-year gains of 100 percent to 2,095 properties sold.

Sotheby’s reported that overall, sales over $1 million increased 107 percent year-over-year to 3,199 properties sold in the first half of the year.

Moreover, 40 percent of these sales over $1 million sold above the listed price.

Sotheby’s president and CEO Don Kottick said in the report that buyers are willing to pay more for luxury real estate.

“Affluent consumers are more prepared to invest in additional space and in next-level architecture and design, whether through upsizing, home renovations or home building,” Kottick said.

The July 13 report did not elaborate on the aspect about “global confidence” in Vancouver’s property market.

However, in a previous report on March 30 this year, Sotheby’s, through Kottick, predicted “multiple waves of consumers in the coming months, both local and international”.

“Canadian real estate continues to be well-positioned as a destination for foreign investment and asset diversification for high and ultra-high net worth investors worldwide,” the realty company stated in that report.

Foreign purchases of Vancouver and B.C. real estate fell to almost zero in 2020 on account of the pandemic.

However, property prices marked record increases, indicating that the market is largely driven by strong local demand.