If you've been watching the Vancouver real estate market this summer, you've probably heard the phrase "buyer's market" more times than you can count. Inventory is up, homes are taking longer to sell, and buyers finally have room to breathe, and to negotiate.

If you're thinking about selling, I know that can sound discouraging. But here's what I've learned over more than a decade of selling homes in this city: a buyer's market doesn't mean your home won't sell. It means the homes that sell well are the ones that are prepared, priced, and presented with intention. The sellers who struggle are almost always the ones pretending it's still 2021.

Let's talk about how to be in the first group.

What's Actually Happening in Vancouver Right Now

The short version: after a cautious spring, the market is quietly rebalancing. Interest rates have stabilized, inventory has climbed well off its historic lows, and buyers are coming back, slowly and on their own terms. Benchmark prices across Greater Vancouver are down modestly from a year ago, and the average listing is spending roughly two months on the market.

That last number matters. Two months is a long time to live in "showing-ready" limbo, and it's why strategy matters more now than it has in years. In a hot market, almost any home sells quickly. In this market, buyers have choices, which means your home has to be the one they can't stop thinking about.

Price It Right the First Time

I'll be direct with you, because that's what you'd want from a friend who does this every day: pricing is where most listings go wrong in a buyer's market.

When buyers have 4,000+ other listings to choose from, they simply scroll past homes that feel overpriced. And here's the painful part: a listing that sits gets stale. After a few weeks, buyers start wondering what's wrong with it, and the eventual price reduction often lands you below where you'd have sold if you'd priced sharply on day one.

The right price isn't what your neighbour got in 2022. It's what comparable homes in your pocket of Vancouver (whether that's a Kitsilano half-duplex, a Mount Pleasant condo, or a family home in Dunbar) are actually selling for this month. A well-priced home still attracts multiple showings in its first two weeks, and momentum is everything.

Make Buyers Fall in Love

In a market with this much inventory, buyers aren't just comparing square footage and price per foot. They're walking through the door and asking one quiet question: could I love living here?

Your job (our job, really) is to make the answer yes. That means:

Declutter and depersonalize. Buyers need to imagine their own life in your space, not tour yours. Clear counters, edited closets, and simplified rooms make every home feel bigger and calmer.

Fix the small stuff. The dripping tap, the scuffed baseboard, the burnt-out bulb: individually tiny, but together they whisper "deferred maintenance" to a cautious buyer. In today's market, cautious buyers walk.

Stage with purpose. Professional staging consistently pays for itself, especially in Vancouver's condo market where layouts can be tricky. A well-staged home photographs beautifully, and photographs are your first showing. Most buyers have decided whether to book a viewing before they've finished scrolling your listing photos.

Let the light in. Vancouver buyers are famously light-obsessed, and fair enough: we earn our sunshine here. Clean windows, open blinds, and well-timed showings can transform how a space feels.

Life is short, love where you live. Buyers feel that instinct the moment they step into a home that's been cared for. Give them that feeling, and the market conditions matter a lot less.

Be Ready to Negotiate Strategically

Today's buyers ask for things: longer subject periods, inspections, sometimes a price adjustment after the inspection. None of this should scare you, but all of it should be handled with strategy.

Sometimes the best response to a low offer isn't "no." It's a thoughtful counter that keeps the conversation alive. Sometimes flexibility on closing dates is worth more than a few thousand dollars on price. And sometimes, the right move is to hold firm because you know (and can show) that your home is priced fairly. This is exactly where experienced representation earns its keep: reading the buyer, reading the market, and knowing which levers to pull.

The Silver Lining Most Sellers Miss

One more thing worth remembering: if you're selling in Vancouver to buy in Vancouver, a buyer's market can actually work in your favour. Yes, you may sell for a little less than you would have two years ago, but you'll also buy your next home with more selection, more negotiating power, and less pressure than we've seen in years. For move-up buyers especially, the math on that trade is often better than it looks.

Thinking About Making a Move?

Selling in this market isn't harder, just different. With honest pricing, thoughtful preparation, and a strategy built for the market we're actually in, Vancouver homes are still selling every single day. And when it's done right, they sell well.

Thinking about buying or selling in Vancouver? I'd love to help. Reach out anytime. Even if you're just weighing your options, I'm always happy to talk it through.

2026 07 24 vancouver condo buyers market 2026 · MD

If you've been sitting on the sidelines of Vancouver's condo market waiting for a better moment, that moment has arrived. After years of bidding wars and buyers stretching to compete, the tables have turned. There's more inventory than we've seen in decades, prices have softened, and developers are negotiating in ways they simply weren't a couple of years ago.

Whether you're a first-time buyer trying to get a foothold in Vancouver real estate, a downsizer thinking about your next chapter, or an owner wondering whether now is the time to sell, here's what's actually happening and what it means for you.

The Numbers Tell a Clear Story

Metro Vancouver is sitting on the highest level of unsold, developer-owned condo inventory in 24 years. Across the region, completed and unabsorbed apartment units have climbed sharply compared to a year ago, with the biggest concentrations in Burnaby, Coquitlam, and parts of Surrey. Active listings across Greater Vancouver are running well above the five-year average, and the apartment benchmark price has eased to roughly $770,000, down about 2.4% from a year ago.

Put simply, there are more condos to choose from and less pressure to overpay. Some developers, sitting on unsold new inventory, have gotten genuinely creative, offering incentives, rate buydowns, and price adjustments to move units. Buyers who do their homework right now are finding real room to negotiate, sometimes well below original asking.

Why This Is Happening

A wave of new construction that broke ground a few years ago is now hitting completion all at once, right as higher carrying costs and cautious buyer sentiment have kept some purchasers on the sidelines. That combination of more supply and softer demand is exactly what shifts a market's leverage. It doesn't mean Vancouver has stopped being a desirable place to live. It means, for the first time in a while, buyers get to be a little more patient and a little more selective.

If You're Buying: Use Your Leverage

This is the part I want every buyer to hear clearly: a buyer's market rewards preparation, not hesitation. Get your financing sorted early so you can move decisively when you find the right unit. Don't be shy about asking for concessions, whether that's a price reduction, parking or storage thrown in, or the developer covering closing costs. And look closely at buildings and neighbourhoods that were previously out of reach; areas with more unsold inventory often mean more negotiating room without sacrificing the lifestyle you're after.

This is also a great window for anyone who's been priced out of Vancouver's detached home market to reconsider a well-located condo. Life is short, love where you live, and right now, "where you live" might be more attainable than you think.

If You're Selling: Standing Out Matters More Than Ever

If you own a condo and are weighing whether to list, the honest answer is that it depends on your building, your unit, and your timeline. With more competition on the market, the properties that sell quickly and for strong value are the ones that are priced realistically from day one and presented beautifully. Buyers have options now, so the goal is simple: make buyers fall in love the moment they walk in. That means decluttering, addressing any deferred maintenance, and leaning on professional photography and staging rather than skipping those steps to save money.

Pricing strategy matters even more in a market like this. Overpricing in a buyer's market almost always backfires. Your listing sits, buyers assume something's wrong, and you end up chasing the market down instead of getting ahead of it.

A Few Neighbourhoods Worth Watching

If you're house-hunting, keep an eye on areas like Burnaby and Coquitlam, where new supply has been concentrated and pricing has softened the most, great territory for buyers wanting more space or amenities for their budget. Closer to the core, well-priced units in established Vancouver neighbourhoods are still moving for buyers who come prepared and act when they find the right fit. A local agent who knows which buildings are carrying unsold inventory, and why, can save you from overpaying or missing a genuine deal.

The Bottom Line

Markets shift, and right now Vancouver's condo market has shifted meaningfully toward buyers. That won't last forever. Inventory gets absorbed, incentives disappear, and pricing tends to firm back up once the current wave of completions works through the system. If you've been waiting for your opening, this is worth a real conversation.

Thinking about buying or selling a condo in Vancouver? I'd love to help you make sense of what's happening in your specific neighbourhood and building, and help you make the most of it.

If you've been house hunting on the West Side lately, you've probably noticed something strange. The renovated homes go fast, sometimes with multiple offers, while the dated ones (the ones with the avocado green kitchens and the basement that still smells like 1974) sit. And sit. And sit.

This isn't your imagination, and it isn't just buyer taste. It's the direct result of a handful of government taxes designed to cool speculation, and they've had a side effect nobody talks about enough: they've quietly pushed the flippers out of Vancouver real estate, and taken a lot of nicely renovated inventory with them.

The Flip Has All But Disappeared

For years, flippers played a real, if controversial, role in Vancouver's housing stock. They'd buy a tired 1950s bungalow in Kerrisdale or Dunbar, gut it, put in the Wolf range and the heated bathroom floors, and sell it 12 to 18 months later. Love them or hate them, they kept a steady supply of turnkey homes flowing onto the market.

That business model doesn't pencil out anymore. BC's home flipping tax, in effect since January 1, 2025, applies a 20% tax on the profit from any residential property sold within 365 days of purchase, phasing out gradually until the two-year mark. For an investor whose entire strategy depends on buying, renovating, and selling within a year, that's a massive bite out of the margin, on top of the capital gains they were already paying.

Stacking Taxes: Why the Math No Longer Works for Investors

The flipping tax didn't arrive alone. It stacked on top of a set of taxes that were already squeezing short-term investors and empty properties:

The Speculation and Vacancy Tax now charges Canadian citizens and permanent residents 1% of assessed value on vacant or underused homes in 2026, up from 0.5%, while foreign owners and satellite families face 3%. If you're holding a property empty for six months while trades finish a renovation, that tax adds up fast.

Vancouver's own Empty Homes Tax sits at 3% of assessed value for 2026 as well, layered on top of the provincial speculation tax for anyone who leaves a property unoccupied during a long reno.

Add rising construction costs, permit delays, and financing at rates that make holding costs painful, and you get a simple result: renovating and flipping a West Side home is no longer a business a lot of investors want to be in. Many of them have simply moved on to other markets or other strategies.

The Result: A Two-Tier Market of Turnkey and Teardown

With flippers largely out of the game, the pipeline of nicely renovated West Side homes has slowed to a trickle. What's left on the market skews toward two extremes: beautifully finished homes owned by families who did the renovation themselves and are now selling for personal reasons, and older, untouched properties that haven't been meaningfully updated in decades.

That's created a real split in buyer behaviour. Renovated, well-located homes are holding their value and moving quickly, even in a market that's cooled overall. Dated homes with awkward layouts or deferred maintenance are sitting longer and taking bigger price adjustments to find a buyer.

It's worth noting that on much of the West Side (Dunbar, Kerrisdale, Shaughnessy, Point Grey) land value often does the heavy lifting regardless of the home's condition. A classic 33-by-122 lot can carry most of its value in the dirt underneath it. But for buyers who actually want to live in the home rather than rebuild it, move-in ready has become a genuinely scarce commodity, and scarcity plus demand is exactly what drives a premium.

What This Means If You're Buying or Selling

If you're buying and you find a truly move-in ready West Side home, be ready to move. These properties are attracting more competition than they were two or three years ago, precisely because there are fewer of them. If you're open to a renovation project, you may actually have more negotiating leverage than you'd expect, since dated homes are sitting longer and sellers are more motivated.

If you're selling a home you've already renovated, this is a genuinely good moment. Buyers are hungry for exactly what you have, and the goal is simple: make buyers fall in love the moment they walk through the door. A well-presented, move-in ready home on the West Side right now isn't just another listing. It's one of the few.

Let's Talk About Your West Side Move

Whether you're chasing a renovated dream home or weighing whether to take on a project yourself, understanding why the market looks the way it does right now makes all the difference in how you approach it. Life is short, and it's worth loving where you live (flippers or no flippers).

Thinking about buying or selling on Vancouver's West Side? I'd love to help.

If you've been sitting on the sidelines of Vancouver real estate waiting for the market to make sense again, I have good news: it just did. The numbers from this June show something we haven't seen in years — sales rising across every single home type at once. Detached homes, townhomes, and condos all picked up steam together. That kind of broad-based movement is a real signal, not just noise.

Whether you're buying your first place or getting ready to list the home you've loved for a decade, here's what's actually happening in Vancouver real estate right now, and what it means for you.

The Numbers Tell a Two-Speed Story

Greater Vancouver saw 2,390 home sales in June, up 9.6% from the same month last year. Detached home sales jumped 13.7%, attached homes rose 11.4%, and condo sales grew 6.1%. That's healthy activity across the board, even though sales are still running below the 10-year seasonal average.

But here's the part buyers and sellers both need to understand: this isn't a one-speed market. Detached houses and townhomes are increasingly moving toward sellers' favour, while the condo market is still firmly in buyers' territory. The composite benchmark price across the region sits around $1.1 million, down about 6% from a year ago, and downtown condo values have softened even further, with per-square-foot pricing slipping from the $1,800 range down closer to $1,500 for non-view resale units.

Translation: if you're a buyer eyeing a Vancouver condo, you have more leverage than you've had in a long time. If you're a buyer or seller in the detached home market, conditions are tightening in the seller's favour, especially for well-located, move-in-ready homes.

Good News for Buyers, Especially in the Condo Market

With active listings running about 22% above the 10-year July average, buyers finally have room to breathe, compare, and negotiate. Properties are sitting a bit longer, absorption rates have cooled, and luxury units above $2 million are taking 60-plus days to sell in some downtown buildings.

If you've been priced out or discouraged by past bidding wars, this is the moment to start looking seriously. I'm seeing genuine negotiating room on condos in Yaletown, the West End, and parts of East Vancouver that simply didn't exist two or three years ago. Pair that with mortgage rates that have finally stabilized — the overnight rate is holding at 2.75%, with five-year fixed rates in the 4.29% to 4.59% range — and the math on ownership is starting to look a lot more approachable for a lot of buyers.

What This Means If You're Selling

If you're selling a detached home or townhouse, the wind is at your back. Demand for ground-oriented homes is outpacing condos, and buyers who've been waiting are re-entering the market with intent. That said, "seller's market" doesn't mean you can skip the fundamentals. Buyers today are more educated, more patient, and more willing to walk away from a home that doesn't feel right the moment they walk in.

My job as your agent is to make buyers fall in love with your home before they even step through the door — through smart pricing, honest staging, and photography that actually captures why you loved living there. In a market like this, presentation is what separates a home that sells in a week from one that lingers for two months.

Condo sellers, don't panic. Yes, conditions favour buyers right now, but well-priced, well-presented units in strong buildings and walkable neighbourhoods are still moving. The sellers who struggle are almost always the ones who price against last year's market instead of this one.

Where the Smart Money Is Looking

Families continue to gravitate toward the East Side, Fraser, and parts of the North Shore for a mix of space, schools, and value. First-time buyers are finding real opportunity in condo markets like New Westminster and parts of Burnaby, where prices have room to move and commutes into downtown Vancouver remain manageable. If you're relocating or upsizing, this is a market where taking your time to find the right fit — rather than settling out of fear of missing out — is actually rewarded.

Let's Talk About Your Next Move

Markets like this one reward people who have good information and a steady hand guiding them, whether that's negotiating a fair condo price or making sure your detached home stands out in a market that's finally waking back up. Life is short, and it's worth loving where you live — whether that means finally making the move into ownership or finding the next chapter for your family.

Thinking about buying or selling in Vancouver? I'd love to help.