The new year started off with a bang for Victoria’s real estate market.

It was the busiest months of sales for January since 2002, according to the Victoria Real Estate Board.

With a total of 539 properties sold, that’s a whopping 53.6 per cent increase over 2015.

Sales surged despite a major drop in the amount of listings in January.

There were more than 3,200 homes listed in 2015 and just 2,471 last month, VREB said.

"Though the ongoing count of properties for sale is low, the number of new listings entering the market is close to what we saw last year," VREB president Wendy Moreton said in a statement. "The good news for buyers is that there are new properties for sale every day. The good news for sellers is that there appears to be more buyers in the market, so well-priced properties in high demand areas (like the Victoria core) are swift sellers."

Moreton said the spring real estate market is typically busy, and it appears it may be starting even earlier this year than last year.

The board said the benchmark value for a home in the region shot up by more than 10 per cent to $618,600.