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Vancouver realtors turning down unrealistic clients as home sales lowest since 2020
Real estate experts say there is another indication that the real estate market in Greater Vancouver is changing. Vancouver realtor and investor, Steve Saretsky, says the market is becoming so saturated that realtors are turning down listings. “The inventory is stacking up, it’s not selling,” he said. “Which is to say, there are a lot of realtors out there working for free.” Home sales in Greater Vancouver are at their lowest since 2020 and Saretsky said sellers’ expectations in a buyers’ market are not always aligned with reality. This means that listings that may have sold fast and over the asking price now might take more resources and time to close the deal — if at all. Story continues below advertisement 1:36 ‘Sign’ of the times: B.C. real estate signpost company offers credit for return of posts Realtor Roman Krzaczek told Global News that people need to adjust their expectations a little bit. Get daily National news Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. “It seems like there’s a lot of listings that are being relisted because they didn’t sell last year and people are expecting the same price and that’s not very realistic in today’s market,” he said. Krzaczek said many people do not realize that realtors have to put time and money into selling a home, including spending money on marketing materials. “It cost me about $2,000 to list the property and it’s a lot of work; (it) takes a couple days to get the whole package put together,” he added. He said he has to look at other properties that are available, take photos of the property to list it and complete any reports as needed. Story continues below advertisement Krzaczek said he recently lost a listing because the seller wanted to post the property for higher than what Krzaczek thought it was worth. “Somebody else listed the property now,” he said. “So I wish them luck. Great people. I really hope that they sell because that’s, you know, they really need to move.” Trending Now 2:07 Metro Vancouver condos sitting empty amid housing crisis He added on Monday he saw a listing on Quadra Island drop from the $1.4 million list price to $1.3 million. “My listing, we recently dropped the price from $1.2 (million) to $995,000,” he added. “Big drops in price and beautiful properties, water or oceanfront properties. So there’s definitely some of that happening. And as long as we have clients, sellers that are realistic and they do listen to us, pricing is not a science, it’s more of an art form and I’m fully immersed in the market… If it’s priced well, it will sell. If it is not, it probably won’t sell. Not every listing sells.” Story continues below advertisement Krzaczek said he has not seen price drops like this in the market since he started in the business 10 years ago. “Usually a price drop is $10, $20, $30,000,” he said. “But $130,000 $200,000 drops, that’s huge. So I don’t know what’s happening but it looks like there’s some kind of a price adjustment happening right now.” © 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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Surprising new indicator of B.C.s sluggish real estate market
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.
How to Make Confident Real Estate Decisions in Uncertain Times
If you’ve been hesitating to buy or sell a home because of interest rates, the economy, or upcoming elections, you’re not alone. Uncertainty can make any major financial decision feel risky. But what if the factors we focus on—like market conditions and economic forecasts—aren’t as important as we think? Some of the most successful investors, from Warren…
Buying and Selling in Sync: The Ultimate Moving Timeline Checklist
When you’re buying your next home after selling your current one, timing is everything. It’s the difference between a smooth handoff—and scrambling to find a place to stay in between. That’s why creating a clear moving timeline is so important. With the right plan, you can avoid unnecessary stress, minimize costs, and make your transition…
B.C. housing supply way up amid economic uncertainty
Posted April 30, 2025 4:15 pm. Last Updated April 30, 2025 4:16 pm. The B.C. housing market is softening, with buyers pulling back on sales due to concerns around the Canadian economy and the U.S. trade war. The BC Real Estate Association released its 2025 second quarter housing forecast Wednesday. The association says it expected a strong 2025 for sales, but that hasn’t happened. Chief Economist Brendon Ogmundson says buyers have pulled back in the first quarter of the year. “We were expecting something close to a normal year. So that would be around 85,000 sales. Instead, we’re running 20 to 25 per cent below that pace. So sales have really, really come off. Buyers just don’t have a lot of confidence right now because of all that uncertainty,” said Ogmundson. He says the inventory of homes has reached the highest level in about a decade. “And that means lots of choice for buyers, lots of time for buyers — not a whole lot of urgency. Sellers are also not in a hurry to lower their prices,” he explained. But Ogmundson explains that increased supply hasn’t done much to change prices. “[Sellers] seem very, very patient, so we’re not seeing a whole lot of movement on the price side. Prices have been essentially flat for the past 18 months — down a little bit in more expensive markets, Fraser Valley and Vancouver, but down by [around] one to two per cent.” He says B.C. has “all the ingredients” for a much stronger market, and sales were up in the last quarter of last year. “And now, suddenly, they aren’t. The only thing you can really see that’s changed is a lot of uncertainty about the future of the economy.” —With files from Sonia Aslam
Spring slowdown for Metro Vancouver home sales drags on despite ‘abundant’ listings
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
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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Plan for 3 towers next to Commercial-Broadway station finally heads to public hearing
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 © 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
A market made for buyers is missing buyers
Real Estate Market Report for March 2025 Home sales registered on the MLS® in Metro Vancouver for March were the lowest since 2019 for the same month, while active listings continued their upward trend. Sales The Greater Vancouver REALTORS® (GVR) reports that residential sales in the region totalled 2,091 in March 2025, a 13.4 percent…