The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) has updated its forecast for home sales activity and prices for 2014 and 2015.

Little is expected to change on the sales front but nationally average home prices are expected to increase by 5.7% this year but by just 0.7% in 2015.

The CREA report says that an extraordinarily bleak winter resulted in a slow start to 2014 national sales activity. As the first quarter ended, sales momentum heading into spring was constrained by a continuing shortage of listings in a number of local markets. However, the rise in newly listed properties in April and May supported an increase in sales activity.

CREA’s forecast for sales activity in 2014 is largely unchanged from its previous forecast published in March. At that time, interest rates had been expected to start to edge higher in the second half of the year. However, it now appears that interest rates may not begin to rise until closer to the end of the year.

British Columbia is forecast to post the largest year on year increase in activity at 8.3% and make the biggest contribution to the increase in national sales activity.

The national average home price is now projected to rise by 5.7% to $404,300 (£220,000) in 2014.