The Christmas season is usually a quiet one in the real estate industry, but the likelihood of an increase in interest rates in 2022 has realtors ready for a steady demand through the early winter.

The CEO of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Realtors, Bill Stirling, says nothing in the local real estate market has gone as expected in the last year or so.

He expects a bit more activity through the early winter before rates go up.

“The last year and a half I’ve been scratching my head, trying to figure out where sales are going to go,” says Stirling, “only to experience 16 months of sales that surpass where sales were a year earlier.”