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Homes in East Vancouver, where the benchmark price is $1.5 million, experienced a 1.4 per cent decrease over the same time period.

April saw more inventory in the detached home market but fewer sales, said REBGV president Phil Moore.

There are approximately 1,800 properties over $3 million currently for sale in the region, with 262 sold between January 1 to April 30 — less than half of the 561 homes sold during the same time period in 2017.

“There’s a lot of a supply and buyers have a lot of choice,” said Moore. “I see more price reductions happening in the high price range. There’s a lot more inventory.”

Photo by Francis Georgian / PNG

Factors for the price drop include new mortgage stress tests and hikes on the foreign-buyers tax and the property transfer tax, said Moore. “We’re starting to see the trend as these new government intervention policies come into play,” he said.

Vancouver’s slower rate of growth is likely the outcome of the province’s “macro prudential measures” and the rising borrowing costs for investors, Kate Everett-Allen, Knight Frank’s head of international residential research, said in an emailed response to questions. In Vancouver, the study looked at properties starting at about $3.5 million, she said.

The quarterly Knight Frank report shows prices in Vancouver for this top segment stayed relatively stable on a year-over-year basis, posting a modest 0.2 per cent increase and placing it 31st on the index.

Steve Saretsky, of Sutton Group West Coast Realty, said the downward push on Vancouver’s detached home prices has been going on for a while.