Some of my clients have been asking me if I have been seeing more foreclosures in our market place. Some have also been curious as to what I think about foreclosures as a vehicle to potentially buy property for less than market value. To better engage in this conversation I feel that it is important…
Currently, the R2 Marine Drive RapidBus is a west-east route serving the North Shore, running between Park Royal in West Vancouver and Phibbs bus exchange in the District of North Vancouver, with a key connection to the SeaBus terminal and Lonsdale bus exchange. Starting in 2027, TransLink will extend the R2 RapidBus from its existing easternmost terminus of Phibbs bus exchange to Burnaby. Its route will be extended southward, across the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge to provide transfer opportunities with two SkyTrain stations — Brentwood Town Centre Station on the Millennium Line and Metrotown Station, the RapidBus route’s new southern terminus, on the Expo Line. It will also connect with the R5 Hastings Street RapidBus, and provide a new way to reach the BCIT Burnaby campus. This expansion of the R2 service was made possible by a key decision earlier this month, following the endorsement by TransLink’s board and the Mayors’ Council of new measures to increase fares, parking taxes, and property taxes. These changes aim not only to avoid service cuts — offering an interim solution to the transit authority’s fiscal cliff — but also to expand and enhance transit services. In addition to the new revenue raised by TransLink, the provincial government has also committed to providing new interim operating funding of $312 million through 2027. Based on TransLink’s newly released ridership statistics, the existing R2 running between Park Royal and Phibbs bus exchange recorded 1.944 million boardings in 2024, with averages of 5,700 per weekday, 5,000 per Saturday, and 4,000 per Sunday/holiday. This is slightly down from 1.965 million in 2023, with averages of 5,800 per weekday, 5,050 per Saturday, and 4,100 per Sunday/holiday. Currently, the R2 is TransLink’s 42nd busiest bus route out of 195 across Metro Vancouver, and ranks fifth out of the six RapidBus routes. While the precise extended R2 route has yet to be finalized, after making its bridge crossing, the extended RapidBus is expected to run along Hastings Street to reach Willingdon Avenue for the remaining journey to Metrotown. There is already strong ridership demand on the corridor between Phibbs bus exchange and Metrotown via Ironworkers Memorial Bridge, Hastings Street, and Willingdon Avenue. In 2024, the No. 130 Metrotown Station/Phibbs Exchange bus route was TransLink’s 20th busiest, with 3.256 million annual boardings — averaging 10,200 on weekdays, 7,000 on Saturdays, and 5,200 on Sundays/holidays. This is up from 2023, when the route saw 3.181 million boardings, with daily averages of 10,000 on weekdays, 7,100 on Saturdays, and 5,300 on Sundays/holidays. The No. 222 Metrotown Station/Phibbs Exchange — the express bus equivalent of the No. 130, running on the same route with limited stops during peak hours only — recorded about 950,000 annual boardings in 2024, with averages of 3,800 per weekday. This is up from 912,000 in 2023 and 668,000 in 2022. Currently, it is TransLink’s 80th busiest bus route. During optimal traffic conditions without any issues on the bridge crossing, the end-to-end travel times for the No. 130 and No. 222 are currently about 35 minutes and 45 minutes, respectively, during peak hours. Similarly, the end-to-end travel time on the existing R2 within the North Shore is roughly 40 minutes. The funding decision earlier this month also enables TransLink to conduct detailed design and planning work to launch three new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lines. An initial public consultation for the King George Boulevard BRT and Langley-Haney Place BRT was conducted in early 2025. In Summer 2025, TransLink will launch a separate initial public consultation on upgrading the R2 RapidBus to a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) standard, including an opportunity for input for the interim move of extending this RapidBus route to Metrotown. The proposed BRT standard includes dedicated bus-only lanes, traffic signal priority, and other transit-priority measures, along with enhanced passenger amenities such as specialized shelters resembling those found at Light Rail Transit stations. Another public consultation in Fall 2025 will focus on the road design changes to support the King George Boulevard BRT and Langley-Haney Place BRT. TransLink is also expected to consider longer-term rapid transit solutions such as Light Rail Transit and SkyTrain for the route between the North Shore and Metrotown. To better support the R2 RapidBus/BRT and other new and improved bus services, TransLink is also in the process of considering a major expansion and redesign of the bus exchange at Metrotown Station to “potentially increase bus service capacity as our system expands in the coming years.”
Call it a sign of the times? “There are so many listings right now in the Metro Vancouver area that there’s not enough signposts,” Kaitlyn Herbst, realtor with MRKT Real Estate Group said. “The company is actually offering, if we take down the signpost, if it’s already sold property and give them their signpost back so that they can use it for a new client, they will give us money back on our next signpost.” Herbst said in April there were more than 15,000 listings in the Greater Vancouver area. “That’s a lot of signs,” she said. “I mean, condos don’t always have signs and stuff, but buyers, they’re just not showing up. They’re a little bit uncertain with everything that’s going on and kind of taking a little more time to look.” Story continues below advertisement 2:07 Metro Vancouver condos sitting empty amid housing crisis Real estate experts say it has been an interesting start to the year in Greater Vancouver. “What we expected to happen was the market to be a little more active than what we’ve seen so far,” Andrew Lis, director of economics and data analytics at Greater Vancouver Realtors, told Global News. 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. “Our forecast called for some growth in sales for the year, but sales have come in pretty slow since the beginning of the year.” Lis said it could partially be due to the uncertainty brought about by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, the political uncertainty around the Canadian election and the federal government’s overall housing strategy plan. “So it could be a number of factors keeping buyers on the sidelines, but things have been sort of quiet on the buy side,” Lis said. Story continues below advertisement “On the sell side, we have a lot of people coming to market with their property. So we’re actually at a point right now where we have some of the highest levels of inventory we’ve seen in almost over a decade. So a really interesting time right now for the market.” Lis said that sales are down about 24 per cent year-over-year. “They’re hanging below our 10-year seasonal averages, you know, around 20, 30 per cent. They’ve kind of been around those levels for some time.” Lis said that the market started to pick up late last year but has been slower in the first part of 2025. “On the inventory side, however, what we’ve seen is a pretty significant increase in inventory levels in our region,” he added. “Our inventory level in the Greater Vancouver region that we track at our board has surpassed the 16,000 mark, which we have not seen in over about a decade.” Trending Now 4:55 New cabinet role puts former Vancouver mayor back in the spotlight Lis said that for buyers, it’s a good thing as there is finally some choice across the board — condos, detached houses and townhouses. Story continues below advertisement However, they have seen more sales of detached homes than attached or apartments. “Generally, price trends have been fairly flat over the past few months and even actually over the last couple of years,” Lis said. “There’s some very small minor ups and downs — a per cent here, up, down a per cent there — but generally the price trend has been flat and that’s been pretty much true across all product types.” Herbst said she has never seen a market like this. “When a couple years ago there was no subjects, you were buying places, sight unseen,” she said. “I had clients buy homes I had never actually seen. Subject free, all that. Now we’ve got, ‘Okay, we’ll come back and see you a second time’.” Herbst said there are even sellers adding incentives to lure in prospective buyers. “There is one home (in Langley) that is for sale that the realtor is offering a Disney Cruise to the buyers of this family home. A four-person Disney cruise,” she said. “It’s not cheap, but it’s a way to make it stand out. It’s a way to get those families through the door. And there’s a lot of options for those buyers. So it’s comparing apples to apples, but this one I get to go on a trip with my family.” © 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Posted May 21, 2025 8:09 pm. Last Updated May 21, 2025 10:53 pm. When former Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson made his comment on Canada’s housing market last week, there might have been more truth in it than many of his critics want to admit. “Finally, someone said it out loud, something we all know, but are not supposed to say,” said long-time Vancouver city councillor and urban planner, Gord Price in an interview with 1130NewsRadio. Not even 24 hours into his new role as Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities, Robertson was clipped saying he does not think housing prices need to be lower . But Price is coming to Gregor Robertson’s defence and thinks critics should widen their lens. “I am not sure how much people really want government to be setting the price up or down.” Price said. “Even if they could, they really can not and you would not want them to.” Price explains that it is important to remember that the housing market moves with global trends. And, if government tries to push prices down too hard, they risk setting off a chain reaction that could destabilize the economy. “If you do not like inflation, you are sure not going to like deflation,” Price argued.
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