A new year means a new president for the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board.
Comox Valley realtor Kevin Reid officially grabbed the reins yesterday.
For the past year, he had held the role of president-elect.
Reid has a long history with the VIREB.
He started volunteering at the board in 2006, with the professional standards committee.
In 2014, he was elected to a director’s position.
Reid said his work with the board takes up about 120 hours a month.
“I chair all our meetings, I help build agendas for the things we are going to be working on, we address day-to-day business as need be for running of the real estate board, and I go to various parts of the country representing (the) Vancouver Island Real Estate Board,” he said.
He added that it is well worth the effort.
“I was called to help out at the board and I enjoyed the work that they are doing, I enjoy helping to promote the value of realtors in the various communities on Vancouver Island, I think our profession is an honourable one, and I think, by and large all the realtors out there are doing excellent work.”
Reid has worked as a realtor, primarily in the Comox Valley, for the past 17 years.
He has also sold homes in Qualicum, Campbell River, Gold River, Port Alice, and Tahsis.
Looking ahead, Reid sees consistent growth for 2020.
“I don’t think it will be a record-setting real estate year as far as price increases or number of homes that are being sold, however there still is a shortage of listings, there is still not enough homes on the market to meet the demand, so I can see some increase in home pricing,” he said.
“If we have a real estate market that was like 2019, we (saw) about nine percent fewer homes being bought and sold and I that, I think is mostly about the amount of homes that are for sale.”
Reid said lifestyle, regional beauty, and climate continues to drive the market on Vancouver Island.
“There are a lot of people just moving around the island, people moving within one area of, say, the Comox Valley or the Campbell River area, to another area,” Reid said.
“We also see significant amounts of people coming from Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, from the Victoria area, and from the Ontario area… People retiring out here where the climate is a little softer.”
He added that the B-20 stress test continues to have a significant impact on first-time homebuyers.
“It reduced the amount of home a family could buy and for some buyers, it took them right out of the market,” he said. “I believe that was the government’s intention, all along, was to put some cooling efforts onto a very rapid real estate market in 2017.”
Reid said they’ve achieved that goal.
“When you look at the market results, the market has cooled down, the market has stabilized,” he said. “So maybe this year we’ll see some adjustments to the mortgage rules that will allow, perhaps, people to borrow more easily.”
