Sale transactions of residential property in Vancouver, Canada increased by 5.9% in 2011 to 32,390 compared with the 30,595 sales recorded in 2010 according to The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV).

However this is a 9.2% fall from the 35,669 residential sales in 2009 and 6.3% below the ten-year average for annual sales in the region.

Rosario Setticasi, REBGV president, said: “It was a relatively balanced year for the real estate market in Greater Vancouver with listing totals slightly above historical norms and sale numbers slightly below.

“Our market remained in a balanced state for most of the year, although higher levels of demand for detached properties in the region’s largest communities caused prices in certain areas to rise higher than others. For example, the benchmark price of a single-family detached home experienced double-digit increases in nine areas within the region over the last 12 months.”

Despite the overall annual increase, actual residential property sales in Greater Vancouver decreased by 12.7% in December 2011 to 1,658 from the 1,899 sales recorded in December 2010. When compared to November 2011 they fell 29.7%, from the 2,360 home sales.