The start of a new year also means new BC property assessments have been issued and the northern half of BC is continuing to see large gains in property values, especially in the residential sector.

The BC Assessment Office reported more than $81.7 billion in increased property value over 2021, $1.24 billion of that from new construction, subdivisions and rezoning of properties.

“All during the pandemic, the real estate market has remained robust across the province including higher demand throughout Northern BC, which has resulted in higher 2022 assessment values for most homeowners in the region,” said Northern BC Deputy Assessor Beau Rossel in a press release. “Northern BC property values for most communities are generally up five to 35 percent with only a couple of exceptions.”

Communities like Smithers and Telkwa saw increases of 21 and 25 per cent respectively, while coastal communities like Prince Rupert saw a 28 per cent increase and those living on the northern archipelago of Haida Gwaii, in the community of Port Clements saw an increase of 58 per cent in the property value.

Sandra Hinchcliffe, a Remax relator in Smithers and the President of the BC Northern Real Estate Board said this follows a trend that has been building for years and has just accelerated during the pandemic.

“There is really just a shortage of supply, there are more buyers than there are sellers,” Hinchcliffe said.

“That’s what makes the prices go up, that’s the long and short of it. [This past summer] things were selling so quickly a lot of times I didn’t have a chance to see something before it sold. We’ve had low supply and competing offers occasionally, but ever since the COVID everything has been thrown out the window.”

Hinchcliffe says communities like Smithers, Telkwa and Hazleton are still very affordable compared with other jurisdictions, however the issue of low housing supply won’t be fixed overnight.

Listen to the full interview below.