North

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    Spring slowdown for Metro Vancouver home sales drags on despite ‘abundant’ listings

    ByDH Vancouver Staff

    Despite an ample amount of listings, the spring slowdown of Metro Vancouver home sales continued in April. According to the latest data from the Monthly Listing Sales (MLS) report from Greater Vancouver Realtors (GVR) and the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, April home sales across the region remain slow. The GVR report highlighted that in April 2025, the residential sales in the region totalled 2,163, a 23.6 per cent decrease from the 2,831 sales recorded in April 2024. This was 28.2 per cent below the 10-year seasonal average of 3,014. “From a historical perspective, the slower sales we’re now seeing stand out as unusual, particularly against a backdrop of significantly improved borrowing conditions, which typically helps to boost sales,” stated Andrew Lis, GVR director of economics and data analytics, in the report. Roman Makedonsky/Shutterstock “What’s also unusual is starting the year with Canada’s largest trading partner threatening to tilt our economy into recession via trade policy, while at the same time having Canadians head to the polls to elect a new federal government. These issues have been hard to ignore, and the April home sales figures suggest some buyers have continued to patiently wait out the storm,” he added. There were 6,850 detached, attached and apartment properties newly listed for sale in April 2025, representing a 3.4 per cent decrease compared to the 7,092 properties listed in April 2024, and a 19.5 per cent increase in the 10-year seasonal average. A total of 16,207 homes are currently listed for sale on the MLS in Metro Vancouver, an uptick from the 14,546 homes listed in March 2025. It is also a 29.7 per cent increase compared to April 2024 (12,491) and 47.6 per cent above the 10-year seasonal average of 10,979. The MLS Home Price Index composite benchmark price for all residential properties in Metro Vancouver currently sits at $1,184,500, a slight decrease of 1.8 per cent from the year before and a 0.5 per cent decrease compared to March 2025. Detached home sales were recorded at 578, a 29 per cent decrease from the 814 detached sales recorded in the same month in 2024. The current benchmark price for a detached home is $2,021,800, which decreased by 0.7 per cent from April 2024 and a 0.6 per cent decrease compared to March 2025. Sales of apartment homes were 1,130 last month, down 20.2 per cent compared to April 2024. The benchmark apartment price is $762,800 — a 2 per cent dip from the same month last year. Attached home sales in April (442) were also slightly slower than what they were in April 2024 (580). The current benchmark price for a townhome is $2,021,800 — a 0.7 per cent decrease year-over-year. GVR The sales-to-active listings ratio for April 2025 for detached, attached and apartment property types was 13.8 per cent. Lis noted that while the market remains tough, there are some positives worth highlighting. “Inventory levels have just crested 16,000 for the first time since 2019, prices have stayed fairly stable for the past few months, and borrowing costs are the lowest they’ve been in years,” he stated. “These factors benefit buyers, and with balanced conditions across the market overall, there’s plenty of opportunity for anyone looking to make a purchase.” The jurisdiction of GVR, previously known as the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV), includes not only Vancouver, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, New Westminster, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Richmond, South Delta, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, and Bowen Island, but also the Sunshine Coast, Squamish, and Whistler. Other areas of Metro Vancouver are under the jurisdiction of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (FVREB), including Surrey, Langley, White Rock, and North Delta, as well as the Fraser Valley cities of Abbotsford and Mission. According to the FVREB, the number of home sales in its jurisdiction in April 2025 saw a “growing inventory” of over 10,000 active listings, but sales remained sluggish. The FVREB recorded 1,043 units sold of all types in April, up one per cent from March, but a 29 per cent year-over-year decrease. Baldev Gill, FVREB CEO, noted that U.S. tariffs and economic uncertainty continue to impact buyers. “However, with the federal election now behind us and a new administration in place, there’s cautious optimism that a fresh approach to strengthening the economy could be on the way, which is welcome news for the real estate sector,” he said. In April 2025, the benchmark prices in the FVREB reached $1,506,600 for single-family detached houses (up 0.1 per cent from March 2025), $833,100 for townhouses (down 0.1 per cent), and $537,800 for condos (down 0.6 per cent). Single-family detached homes remained on the market for an average of 32 days in April, and just over 29 for the other townhouses and condos. With files from Kenneth Chan 

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    ‘Don’t always go up’: Bulk of Metro Vancouver presale condos sold in 2022 and 2023 now appraised below original price

    ByJoanne Lee-Young

    The Butterfly on Nelson Street in Vancouver Nov. 21, 2023. Photo by Arlen Redekop /PNG Article content Thousands of presale buyers in Metro Vancouver face completing their purchase of condos that are now worth less than they were in 2022 and 2023 when they signed the contracts to buy them. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Vancouver Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Vancouver Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Sign In or Create an Account or Article content Article content More than half of the appraisals required by mortgage lenders to complete sales are now coming in at values lower than original sale prices. Article content As a result, lenders will only write smaller mortgages. That means condo buyers have to satisfy lenders by ponying up the difference between the unit’s value in 2022 or 2023 and what it is worth now, either by putting in more cash or refinancing. Article content Article content A Vancouver appraiser who works with banks, law firms and mortgage brokers is raising the alarm because the buildings are now built and developers are trying to finalize sales. Article content By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Article content “Presales don’t always go up. There was that mindset where if it happened before, it’s going to happen again,” said Adam Lawrenson, owner of Vancouver-based Adlaw Appraisals. “I can’t say an exact number, but over half (of appraisals) are now coming in below their sale price.” Article content He estimates condo values have dropped between five and 20 per cent below what buyers originally promised to pay when they put down a non-refundable deposit. Article content That’s one reason why a growing number of buyers are looking to sell these new or barely used properties. This market glut and a lack of demand is helping drive down prices. Article content “You can easily get a brand new unit or a one- or two-year (old) unit at a cheaper price point than these presales, so that comes into play when we are doing our appraisal and looking at current market values.” Article content Article content With sellers dropping prices to speed up sales, that sets a new base for future, lower, appraisals. Article content Article content No area in the Lower Mainland is immune, but there are some buildings and areas that are more susceptible to having units “being underwater.” Article content There are “areas of Langley that got overbuilt and developers were leaving them vacant for six to 12 months, in hopes the market would turn around. But you can only hold for so long before you have to start selling them,” Lawrenson said. Article content There are also a few buildings in north Burnaby where presale buyers are now looking to get rid of units as soon as they close their sale. Some have 30 listings of one-bedroom apartments. Article content There are also some higher-end buildings in downtown Vancouver, such as The Butterfly on Nelson Street, with presale units that sold at presale for over $2 million. Some of these have appraisals that are now down $300,000 to $500,000 from their original prices, said Lawrenson. Article content According to research by Rennie Intelligence, which does marketing for major developers, investors made up around half of all buyers in the years between 2021 to 2023.

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    116 Rental Units Planned for Telus Site in East Vancouver

    Bydavid.taylor@colliers.com

    Ledcor has applied on behalf of Telus for the rezoning and redevelopment of an existing Telus owned property at 6486 Chester Street in East Vancouver. The site is an existing infrastructure site for Telus, one of several proposed for residential redevelopment. The proposal is to allow for the development of a 6-storey rental project that includes: 116 rental units; a telecommunications facility on the northeast corner of the site; a total density of 2.89 FSR; A building height of 73 ft. This application is being considered under the  Secured Rental Policy. The architect for the project is Yamamoto Architecture. The full rezoning application can be viewed here: https://www.shapeyourcity.ca/6486-chester-st

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    New 13,000 sq. ft. off-leash dog area now open in Vancouver park.

    Bymichael

    Vancouver dog lovers and their pups now have a new place to run around after the opening of a new off-leash area in South Cambie. The City unveiled the nearly 13,000 sq. ft. off-leash area in Heather Park, located at the southeast corner of West 18th Avenue and Willow Street. According to Park Board Chair Laura Christensen, the new off-leash area is another milestone in the City’s commitment to increasing dog-friendly spaces in Vancouver. Isabelle Vauclair “Our People, Parks and Dogs Strategy highlights the importance of building a varied network of off-leash areas throughout the city that meet the needs of all park users, including those with and without dogs,” said Christensen in a release. “We’re thrilled to welcome Vancouver’s four-legged community and their owners to Heather Park.” Heather Park’s off-leash area features a large open space and a series of agility features, including hurdles, stepping stones, and a ramp. Additional seating for owners and a drinking fountain and dog bowl have been added for two- and four-legged visitors. Isabelle Vauclair The design for the South Cambie off-leash area was created using feedback from over 1,300 people who took part in two rounds of public engagement. Heather Park is one of three new off-leash dog areas proposed for Vancouver parks. Work is expected to be completed this summer at a similar area at Granville Park in Fairview, and a renewal and expansion of Emery Barnes Park’s off-leash area is slated for completion around the same time.

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    Canadian Dental Care Plan applications are now open for people under 35

    ByIsabelle Docto

    The Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP) is now accepting more applications. Implemented in 2023, the program aims to decrease dental costs for Canadians earning less than $90,000 annually. The federal government says the dental plan will help up to nine million uninsured people get the care they need. Applications opened for eligible Canadians ages 18 to 34 on Thursday. The CDCP will expand eligibility even further later this month, on the 29th, for those aged 35 to 54. “The Government of Canada will send letters to Canadian residents aged 18 to 64 who may be eligible to the Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP), based on their 2024 adjusted family net income, inviting them to apply,” reads a government notice. “If you (and your spouse or common-law partner, if applicable) have filed your 2024 tax returns and received your notice of assessment from the Canada Revenue Agency, you can apply once applications open up for your age group, even if you haven’t received this letter.” If you’re already covered by the dental care plan, you’ll need to renew for the 2025 to 2026 period before June 1 to avoid a possible gap in coverage. To do this, you must have filed your 2024 tax return and received the notice of assessment from the Canada Revenue Agency. Who qualifies for the Canadian Dental Care Plan? You must meet all of the following requirements to be eligible for the dental care plan: You’re a Canadian resident You don’t have access to dental insurance through your employer, student organization, a family member’s employer benefits, your pension, or a family member’s pension benefits You’ve filed your tax return Your adjusted family net income is less than $90,000 Canadians who are part of their province’s or territory’s dental program can still qualify for the CDCP if they meet all eligibility criteria. What does the CDCP cover? These are some of the dental services it covers: Preventive services, including scaling (cleaning), polishing, sealants, and fluoride Diagnostic services, including examinations and X-rays Restorative services, including fillings Periodontal services, including deep scaling Oral surgery services, including extractions It expanded the services it covers in October to add the following: Complete specialist examinations Crowns Root canal re-treatments Removable partial dentures, overdentures, and immediate dentures Major surgical procedures Moderate sedation, deep sedation, and general anesthesia The government notes that the dental plan does not directly pay eligible members for the cost of dental care services. Even if you’re eligible, you may still have to pay your oral health provider any amount not covered by the CDCP. This article was originally published on May 11, 2025. It has since been updated.

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    Plan for 3 towers next to Commercial-Broadway station finally heads to public hearing

    BySimon Little

    After nearly a decade of proposals, pushback and debate, a plan to build a set of towers next to one of Metro Vancouver’s busiest transit hubs is getting a public hearing. About 100 people have signed up to speak for and against the proposed redevelopment of a Safeway lot next to the Commercial-Broadway SkyTrain station. The plan before council envisions three towers, with heights of 44, 38 and 37 storeys, comprising 1,044 rental homes. 2:14 Drastic changes made to Broadway-Commercial Safety redevelopment plan Ten per cent of those units would be secured at city-wide average market rates, while the remainder would lease for going market rates. Story continues below advertisement The proposal has generated strong feelings on both sides, with supporters arguing more housing is critically needed, particularly near transit, and opponents arguing the units won’t be affordable. “Vancouver has a crushing shortage of housing. For decades, we have not been building enough housing, and this neighbourhood, Grandview Woodlands, is a great example of this, we basically haven’t built much new housing there since the 1970s, and as a result the population there is actually declining … despite the fact this SkyTrain station we are talking about is one fo the busiest transit hubs in the country,” Peter Waldkirch, director of Abundant Housing, told CKNW’s The Jill Bennett Show. “Burnaby just proposed an 80-storey tower … it’s actually quite perverse, it’s backwards that we are building bigger and taller buildings than this in the suburbs than we are in the heart of the city.” Get daily National news Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Opponents like Craig Ollenberger, chair of the Grandview Woodland Area Council, say the proposed secured market rental requirement is far too low. A rendering of the trio of proposed towers for Commercial and Broadway in Vancouver. City of Vancouver 2:05 Public hearings on controversial East Vancouver development postponed again Speaking on CKNW’s The Jas Johal Show, he said the city should look to replicate what it did in the Broadway Plan, which is 20 per cent of units at 20 per cent below market rates. Story continues below advertisement “It is bringing nothing but 1,000 luxury rental units to our community, suites that nobody will be able to afford. And for that the city is only asking for 10 per cent of the units to be at market rent,” he said. “This community, the majority of people can’t afford market rent.” The proposed redevelopment would also include a 37-space child care facility, a ground-level public plaza and an upper-level courtyard. Trending Now The development has been contentious ever since it was first put forward in 2016, as part of the broader Grandview-Woodland Community Plan approved by the council led by then-mayor and now federal Housing Minister Gregor Robertson. Neighbourhood groups had rejected a previous version of the community plan, arguing it would radically change the neighbourhood’s character, and the pushback led to a municipal citizens’ assembly whose feedback was eventually integrated into the revised 2016 plan, which included a maximum tower height of 24 storeys. A proposal for the Safeway site envisioned two towers, one of them hitting that threshold. 2:04 Grandview Woodland development tour A subsequent version of the proposal, with the tallest tower reaching 30 storeys and composed mostly of condos, nearly made it to a public hearing in 2022, but was sidelined by the 2022 municipal election. Story continues below advertisement “The economics have changed. Rents were lower a few years ago … interest rates were lower … community expectations were different. I think when this project started getting negotiated, you could argue against the need for more housing more successfully,” said Tom Davidoff, an associate professor of economics at UBC’s Sauder School of Business. Davidoff said the pressure to get new units built and to comply with the provincial and federal governments’ transit-oriented density requirements will likely weigh in the project’s favour. The site would sit virtually on top of the intersection of two SkyTrain lines and the 99-B Line bus route. It’s TransLink’s third-busiest transit hub, and saw more than 6.2 million boardings in 2023. “If you can’t have density at the intersection of streets named Commercial and Broadway, where there is a major transit intersection, I don’t know where you want people to go,” Davidoff said. With scores of people signed up to speak, Wednesday’s hearing could go late into the evening, — with files from Alissa Thibault &copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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    Grouse Mountain’s first-of-its-kind bike park will open on June 6, 2025

    ByDaniel Chai

    A massive new mountain bike park will soon open at Grouse Mountain, and outdoor enthusiasts are ready to ride atop the Peak of Vancouver. The resort announced today that Grouse Bike Park will open on June 6, 2025, with a variety of tracks and trails for cyclists of all skill levels. North Shore’s first and only chairlift-accessed mountain bike park is part of Grouse Mountain’s $9 million investment into expanding its year-round offerings, originally announced last summer. Grouse Mountain “The current and growing enthusiasm for mountain biking in the Lower Mainland, combined with Grouse Mountain’s existing infrastructure and terrain, makes Grouse Bike Park a natural next step as we continue to enhance all-season offerings and the overall guest experience,” said Michael Cameron, President of Grouse Mountain Resort, in a release. “The trails at Grouse Bike Park cater to riders of all skill levels, and we’re excited to feed the appetite of the community while contributing to the renowned trails already present on Vancouver’s North Shore.” Gravity Logic, the same company behind the design and build of Whistler Bike Park, constructed the Grouse Bike Park project. The new outdoor destination will feature nearly 10 km of trails, including beginner green and blue flow trails and advanced intermediate and expert trails. Grouse Mountain There will also be a blue jump line, single black technical trails, and a double black single track opening in June, with a single black jump line scheduled to open sometime in the summer. Grouse Bike Park features a vertical of 900 m and will also include a skill zone. All trails will lead back to the Screaming Eagle Chairlift, which will return riders to the mountaintop. The resort will also open a new gravity-fed mountain coaster as an annual seasonal attraction, set to open in Spring 2025. Construction on the coaster began in 2023. Fall 2024 testing of the new Blue Grouse Gondola at Grouse Mountain Resort. (Grouse Mountain Resort) The spring openings of the coaster and bike park were timed to happen after the recent opening of Grouse Mountain’s $35 million new access gondola between the base parking lot and the plateau level next to the Peak Chalet. The new access gondola replaces the 1960s-built Blue Skyride, which recently closed permanently and is being decommissioned. Season passes for Grouse Bike Park are on sale now, with day passes becoming available closer to June’s opening date. With files from Kenneth Chan

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    Vancouver swamped by unsold condos as supply outpaces demand

    Bymichael

    Open this photo in gallery: A condo tower under construction in downtown Vancouver, on Feb. 9, 2020. DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press In Metro Vancouver, supply has most definitely outpaced demand. The number of newly built, unsold condo units in the Vancouver region is expected to increase by 60 per cent by year’s end. That will bring the total of new units sitting empty to 3,493 – a 60 per cent increase from the 2,179 homes that sat empty and unsold by the end of 2024. These are multifamily units that have an occupancy permit and are move-in ready. Ryan Berlin, head economist and vice-president of Rennie Intelligence, part of Rennie Marketing, a Vancouver-based real estate marketing firm that represents some of the country’s largest developers, said 2025 will close with the “highest level of unsold condo inventory” that the region has seen in many years. It’s a bleak situation for developers, hampered by trade wars, an uncertain interest rate, rising costs and regulations designed to thwart a previous market that was driven by speculation and investment. Those days are over. “Right now, the market is out of gas. Nothing is working for developers. It’s not really working for buyers. So, we’re just kind of stagnating right now,” said Mr. Berlin. The story is all about the missing investor – a key player in the housing market. And they’ve run for the exits. Mr. Berlin has long kept statistics on investors, and from 2020 to 2023 they represented half of Rennie Marketing’s buyers. By 2024, they made up one-quarter of buyers. This year, only seven per cent of buyers are investors, he said. The investor buyer has kept the condo market going for decades. Willing to put up the deposit far in advance of the completed building, the investor enables the developer to obtain financing to construct. Once completed, the investor finds tenants for the unit, and investor landlords became a significant source of housing in the rental market. When lucrative rents were achievable, and borrowing money was cheap, the investor could easily cover costs, known as positive cash flow. But the conditions flipped, and with dropping rents and rising interest rates, many of them entered significant negative cash flow, said Berlin. “It’s not very palatable,” he said. There are other factors. Mr. Berlin said that the capital gains inclusion rate may no longer be on the table, but it created enough fear that people sold off properties. The federal anti-flipping tax, which treats gains on the sale of a house within one year as business income, has also curtailed investor buying. The federal temporary foreign buyer ban has reduced foreign money investment. Short-term rental restrictions have also put a dint in the investor market, particularly in tourist-driven markets like Kelowna. Developers were already dealing with high construction costs and soaring municipal fees. And policies that made sense in a hot market rife with speculation – which defined 2015 and 2016 – are restricting the market even more. “If somebody has money to invest in something and they look at this market, they’ll go, ‘Wow, I’m really being squeezed. Maybe I’ll just put it into a GIC.’ “It’s not to judge any of these policies as being good or bad overall for society, like a sort of net utility,” said Mr. Berlin. “But certainly, for investors … this real imbalance got created between risk and reward. The opportunity for reward diminished and the risks increased.” The dire situation has some developers asking for relief, such as easing up on the requirement that they provide social housing within a rental or strata tower, such as around transit-oriented areas and within some parts of the massive Broadway Plan area of Vancouver. Developer Tony Hepworth, president of Pennyfarthing Development, said six-storey wood-frame buildings are far more realistic than concrete towers. And the requirement to provide 20 per cent social housing in residential towers isn’t viable for most developers in this market. “We haven’t seen it yet, and not in Vancouver, but other municipalities have started dropping their requirement for affordable housing, from 20 to 10 per cent. I think they are going to have to drop it,” he said of Vancouver. “Talking to my colleagues, and some of them are bigger developers than we are, and we are saying that we can’t see how these big towers can go ahead, whether condo or rental at the moment.” Commercial broker Ian Brackett, from Goodman Commercial, said the cost to build a below-market rental unit is about double the actual value of the unit once completed. It means the market rate units elsewhere in the building must be significantly higher, and renters can only pay so much. “It has become very obvious that insisting on 20 per cent below market has become too much of a burden and is rendering many projects unfeasible,” said Mr. Brackett. “The question becomes, would renters and the city as a whole be better off having more housing built even if it is all at market rates, if the alternative is to have nothing built? Twenty per cent of nothing is zero.” The city said in an e-mail response that it is open to making policy changes to address the increasingly challenging market. “City staff certainly appreciate that market conditions are difficult for development at this time,” said Matt Shillito, director of special projects. “The market is dynamic with many different

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    Cost of living pushing seniors back into workforce, B.C.

    BySimon Little

    Posted November 19, 2024 7:32 pm Updated November 19, 2024 8:35 pm 1 min read 2:06 Surge in B.C. seniors wanting back into workforce Another sign of more and more people having trouble making ends meet. A Vancouver non-profit group says it’s seeing a surge in seniors asking for help to get back into the workforce. Travis Prasad reports. Vancouver’s surging cost of living is having yet another unintended consequence — a growing number of seniors looking to get back into the workforce. Vancouver non-profit Mission Possible, which helps connect people in precarious life situations with stable employment, says it’s seen a 55-per cent jump in the number of seniors looking for work compared to last year. The organization says some are coming out of retirement, while others are putting off retirement because they can’t make ends meet without a paycheque. 2:07 Red-hot inflation leaves working Montreal senior with ‘nothing to save’ Edward Boe, 66, told Global News he’s working 20 hours a week at Mission Possible to keep a roof over his head. Story continues below advertisement “I’m making $1,540 on my pensions, old age and CPP. I’ve got rent of $800, expenses of $400. That would’ve left me with $200 a month,” he explained. Trending Now Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. “I’d probably be living down here in the Downtown Eastside in an SRO, which thank God I’m not.” Matthew Smedley, Mission Possible’s executive director and CEO, said that while many seniors are looking to work, they often find fewer opportunities than other job seekers. “It can be extremely difficult for seniors to find work, there can be technological barriers, health barriers, maybe some extra flexibility needed for some folks and that can be challenging to make them feel like they’re able to get back into work,” he said. Smedley said seniors aren’t the only ones feeling the pressure. Mission Possible has seen a 165-per cent increase in people seeking help to get a job over last year. The organization is calling on the province to increase services that help people get back into the workforce. &copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc. Sponsored content