Industry experts eye Kelowna as hot real estate opportunity

Credit: Mission Group

The Okanagan city is gaining a reputation as a smart buy for property investors

With Vancouver’s sizzling real estate showing no signs of cooling, the average condominium gained 16 per cent in value year-over-year in the third quarter, according to Royal LePage. That might not come as a surprise, and with an average price of more than $750,000, the city’s condos aren’t exactly affordable for the typical buyer.

What will come as a shock to some observers, though, is that Kelowna’s year-over-year gain outpaced Vancouver’s in Q3. Even with a 20-per-cent jump, the average condo price in Kelowna has settled at $399,000, leading experts to proclaim the Okanagan city as the next savvy property investment.

Real estate services firm Colliers International cites Kelowna as seeing a population growth rate of 3.1 per cent last year, one of the highest in the province, while Western Investor recently called it the country’s best real estate investment. Meanwhile, Re/Max has indicated that buyers from Vancouver are starting to invest in Kelowna.

If you’ve been thinking about jumping into Kelowna’s burgeoning market, you might want to move fast.