The Vancouver Real Estate Shift Nobody’s Talking About (But You Need To Understand Right Now)

Is the Vancouver real estate market crashing? No, and it isn't booming either. Homes that are priced right are still selling fast, and everything else is sitting.

The market isn’t “crashing.”
It’s not “booming” either.

It’s resetting, and if you don’t understand this shift, you’re going to make the wrong move at the worst time.

✅ Is the Vancouver Market Dead? No, It’s Selective

Here’s what most people miss:

Homes are still selling. Fast.

But only if they’re:

• Priced right
• Positioned right
• Marketed aggressively

Everything else?

Sits. Gets ignored. Price drops. Burns leverage.

This is not a forgiving market anymore.

This is a skill-based market.

And that changes everything.

✅ Why Are Luxury Vancouver Condos Struggling?

The clearest sign of the reset is at the very top of the market. For more than a decade, Vancouver’s largest developers worked in one of the most profitable real estate environments in North America. Projects sold out within days. Today, some of the most expensive buildings in the city have units sitting unsold, resale listings can’t find buyers, and in several cases owners are accepting massive losses just to get out. The current numbers for your area are in the Kyle Mark Report.

A lawsuit filed in December 2025, covered in the news, gave us a rare look behind the curtain. A former vice president at Westbank claimed she was owed $1.2 million in unpaid bonuses, and the developer responded that the bonuses were tied to the profitability of projects that were underperforming. The courts will decide that dispute. What made it remarkable is that the filings included private text messages about the condition of several major developments, including the sale of a 50% stake in a project near the Burrard Bridge, built in partnership with the Squamish Nation, at a substantial discount. When a large developer sells a stake in a major project at a reduced price, it often signals a need to raise liquidity, because big projects require constant capital and that pressure builds fast when sales slow down.

Construction delays used to be an inconvenience. In a rising market, a pre-sale buyer might be frustrated by a longer timeline but still comfortable completing. When prices stop rising, a delay of several years means higher construction costs, higher financing costs, and buyers completing at prices the market no longer supports.

✅ What’s Actually Causing the Slowdown?

It comes down to supply, demand and psychology.

Supply. There are significantly more homes for sale than the market typically absorbs. On top of that there’s shadow inventory, meaning newly completed condos that are still sitting empty and were never listed for sale, so the true supply may be considerably larger than what you see on listing sites.

Demand. For years, immigration, international students and temporary workers drove the rental market and eventually the ownership market. Recent changes to immigration policy and student visa programs have slowed that growth considerably, and rents have been trending down for nearly 2 years. When rents fall, tenants feel less urgency to buy and investors lose one of their main reasons to buy. Many of the pre-sale buyers who used to absorb new condo supply were investors expecting rising rents and rising prices. Without them, a large portion of the pre-sale market has slowed dramatically.

Psychology. Buyers used to believe waiting would only make housing more expensive. Today many believe prices may keep softening, so they’re willing to wait 6 months, 12 months or longer. That creates a freeze. A homeowner who can’t sell can’t buy their next place, and the person who would have sold them that place delays too, which means fewer transactions across the entire market.

✅ Should Vancouver Buyers Wait for Rates or Prices to Drop?

Right now, buyers have something they haven’t had in years:

👉 Options
👉 Negotiation leverage
👉 Time to think

But here’s the problem…

They’re stuck.

They’re waiting for:

• Rates to drop
• Prices to crash
• “The perfect moment”

Let me be clear:

That moment doesn’t exist.

By the time it feels safe, the opportunity is already gone. Run your own payment on the mortgage calculator, then see how I work with buyers on my buyer page.

✅ How Should You Price Your Vancouver Home Right Now?

This is where most sellers get it wrong.

They’re still pricing based on:

• 2021 peaks
• Their neighbor’s sale
• What they “hope” to get

That strategy will cost you tens, sometimes hundreds, of thousands.

Today’s winning sellers are doing three things:

1. Pricing strategically (not emotionally)
2. Creating competition, not chasing it
3. Controlling the narrative from day one

If you don’t do that?

You become the listing everyone scrolls past. Start with What's my home worth? and read how I run a sale on my seller page.

✅ The Gap Is Where the Opportunity Is

Right now, there’s a disconnect:

• Buyers think prices should drop more
• Sellers think prices should stay high

That gap?

That’s where deals are happening.

This is where experienced agents make all the difference.

Because:

• Negotiation matters more than ever
• Timing matters more than ever
• Strategy matters more than ever

This is not a DIY market. I wrote more on this in what buyers and sellers should do while the market shifts.

🧠 The Real Play (What Smart Clients Are Doing)

Here’s what I’m advising clients right now:

👉 Buyers:
Stop waiting for headlines. Start looking for leverage in individual deals.

👉 Sellers:
Win in the first 7 days, or you’re chasing the market down.

👉 Investors:
This is the window. Not when everything feels good again.

📢 What Happens Next, and How Do You Win?

Real estate markets don’t recover just because prices have declined slightly. Recovery typically starts when supply and demand begin to normalize, which in Vancouver means the current inventory has to be absorbed first. That may take time, but it could lead to something a lot of people have been hoping for: a more balanced market where buyers and sellers can make decisions without extreme urgency or fear. The things to watch are inventory levels, rental trends and buyer demand.

You don’t win in this market by guessing.

You win by:

• Reading the data correctly (the free Kyle Mark Report is a good place to start)
• Moving before the crowd
• Executing with precision

Most people will sit on the sidelines.

That’s exactly why opportunity exists right now.

📞 Book a 30-Minute Strategy Call

If you’re even thinking about buying or selling this year, don’t wing it.

I’ll break down:

• What’s actually happening in your price range
• Where the leverage is right now
• The exact strategy to win in this market

👉 Book a 30-Minute Strategy Call