Retirees the Sunshine Coast’s main buyer demo

If you’re selling a home on BC’s BEAUTIFUL Sunshine Coast, there’s a good chance your buyer will be a retiree.

Prior to COVID, our prices were largely set by retirees. Many retirees didn’t need to make daily trips into the city and the ferry wasn’t seen as a major turnoff. You saw that buyer demographic reflected in local governments' priorities when services for children took a backseat to amenities better suited to an older population. Retiree buyers were comfortable with the lifestyle they’d found on the Sunshine Coast, and made it clear that they didn’t want much to change.

Then COVID hit. The ferry had been seen as a negative, separating the Sunshine Coast from the Lower Mainland. But during COVID, the ferry became a moat, offering a sense of protection during the pandemic. Younger buyers felt they’d work from home indefinitely, so why not work from paradise, isolated from the disease? Retiree buyers were now competing with a younger cohort of buyers and Sunshine Coast real estate prices increased dramatically.

Now, post pandemic, companies are calling employees back to the office. The ferry has reverted to a barrier rather than a bonus. A portion of young buyers that bought during COVID are now ready to return to the city and retirees have reemerged as the primary buyer group on the Sunshine Coast.

Historically, the Sunshine Coast market has operated on a seven-year cycle—prices rise, fall, and rise again. It's one of the few markets where detached home prices have occasionally dropped. Over the past 18 months, we’ve seen a dip in prices from their COVID peak, but I believe we’re close to bottoming out. I’m optimistic about the coming months and if you’re a buyer who’s been waiting on the sidelines, September could be the time to jump in.