"One of the biggest challenges, is the fact that with COVID, you've seen a certain part of the regional workforce be liberated in terms of (housing) choices," said Andy Yan, City Program at SFU.

The Lower Mainland’s 2022 property assessments soared the highest the farther away from Vancouver you go, figures from B.C. Assessment show, painting another picture of how property markets are being reshaped by COVID-19.

Hope, at the eastern end of the Fraser Valley, saw the typical assessment on a detached home rise 45 per cent to $620,000 on its 2022 valuation, compared with the University Endowment Lands where assessments rose 11 per cent. The value on that typical endowment lands property, however, hit an eye-popping $5.5 million, but the prospect of remote-working urbanites priced out of Vancouver or Burnaby buying in farther-flung municipalities is distributing the stress of housing inequality across the region.

“One of the biggest challenges, is the fact that with COVID, you’ve seen a certain part of the regional workforce be liberated in terms of (housing) choices,” said demographer Andy Yan, director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University.

Potential buyers who were once discouraged from considering suburbs such as Langley and Abbotsford by the prospect of long commutes can now choose to buy a detached home or bigger townhouse with more space for children, Yan said. So typical property assessments on detached homes soared some 39 per cent to $1.16 million in the City of Langley, 34 per cent to $1.32 million in the Township of Langley and 34 per cent to $1.42 million in Surrey.

Maple Ridge saw its typical detached assessment rise 37 per cent to cross the $1.12 million mark and Chilliwack saw detached assessments rise 40 per cent to $877,000.

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