Greg Petzold (Assessor, City of Winnipeg) reviews the growth of condominium inventory in Winnipeg over the timespan of a decade.
A Decade of Growth for the Condo Population
Is this a colour chart from Western Paint?
No, it’s a new condo project under construction in 2012 on Wall Street in the West End.
Winnipeg’s condominium market remains an active place in 2012. Not only new construction, but large numbers of conversions of existing apartment blocks are still taking place. Warehouses, large older homes and even churches are also fair game for conversion. A review of the property population shows that although condos remain a fraction of the market, they have been growing at a significantly higher rate than the remainder of residential properties.
This is not a one to one dwelling unit comparison. The condo numbers do correspond to dwelling units-each record is a single dwelling unit. The non-condo residential group cited here are improved properties valued by the residential models. This includes individual houses and side-by-sides as well as duplexes and multi-family conversions-but not apartments. So this is a “property record level” population comparison. Nevertheless, the trend is significant. It’s not your imagination-the condo population has expanded significantly.
*note 2014 numbers will still increase somewhat as these figures are preliminary.
In raw numbers there have been more non-condo residential properties added to the population in the last decade. But when we look at percentage property population growth within each grouping we find that condos have had a dramatic increase.
From the 2002 reassessment baseline, the population of condo units has increased from 12,344 to 18,198-a jump of 47.4%. In the same period, the remainder of the Residential property group has only climbed by 9.7%. Today the 20,000 unit barrier is not far off for condos-the numbers quoted here do not include some newly completed complexes or anything still under construction.
The current condo inventory breaks down as 12,977 apartment style units. The remaining 5,221 non-apartment units include attached, semi-detached, detached, home conversions and garden apartments. Garden apartments are identified as complexes with individual exterior entries.
Winnipeg has lagged behind other major centers in the condo market segment. Yet it has still experienced increased market acceptance in the last decade. In recent years in the residential market, attached homes have had consistently higher value increases as compared to single-family homes. Homebuyers appear to be forced “down-market” by the escalating cost of single-family homes. It appears likely that the condo market is experiencing some spill-over as cash-strapped first time buyers opt for a condo. August results from Winnipeg REALTORS report the most active price range of the residential-detached market was the $250,000-299,900 price range with 22% of total sales. In contrast, the leading segment for condo sales was the more modest $150,000-199,900 price range with 33% of total sales.
2002-2012 Percent Growth in Property Record Population by Group: Condo Units Versus Non-Condo Residential Properties
