Vancouver Real Estate in 2025: Sales Are Down and Buyers Have the Moment

Written in December 2025. Some details have changed since, so check current numbers before you act on this.

Vancouver’s spring 2025 sales slump handed buyers real leverage. Detached homes are soft, condos and townhomes are holding steady, and inventory keeps climbing. If you’re a buyer, this is your window, pockets of opportunity are wide open. If you’re a seller, it’s all about strategy: some areas are hot, some are cold, and timing is everything. Let’s cut through the noise and break down exactly where you should be focused right now.

Have Vancouver home sales crashed?

Greater Vancouver REALTORS® reported that Metro Vancouver home sales in March 2025 were the lowest going back to 2019 for the same month, and 36.8 per cent below the 10-year seasonal average. That’s not a fluke, it’s a trend I’ve been calling for 8 months straight. The current numbers for your area are in the Kyle Mark Report.

Greater Vancouver REALTORS® put residential sales at 2,090 for March 2025, a 13.4% decrease from March 2024. In the same report, the board’s director of economics and data analytics said that if you set aside the political and economic uncertainty tied to the new U.S. administration, buyers hadn’t seen conditions this favourable in years, especially on the detached side. That’s the strange part. A market made for buyers is missing buyers. Tariffs, an election and no stability in Ottawa have people too tentative to get in. Chaos is usually where the best purchases get made, as long as you’re making decisions on data and facts.

If you’re a buyer, this is exactly what you’ve been waiting for. The market is soft. Inventory is up. Bargains are sitting there for the taking. But you need to know where to look and how to move fast.

Are detached homes soft on Vancouver’s West Side and East Side?

Let’s break it down:

• West Side: Detached is shockingly slow. Dunbar, MacKenzie Heights and Shaughnessy are among the softest pockets. There’s massive inventory, but few sales, and entry-level prices have flatlined.

• East Side: Detached is slightly stronger, but very polarizing. Collingwood, South Vancouver and Renfrew are the soft spots. Inventory is high, and savvy buyers have room to negotiate in the right detached price bands.

The two sides of the city behave very differently. On the West Side, detached is pretty much soft across the board. The entry-level price range is the exception, and if you have an entry-level detached home or dirt on the West Side you’re in a stronger seat than the headlines suggest. Kitsilano was one of the stronger sub-areas. The upper-end price bands have much more room to negotiate. The East Side is trickier, with hot and cold pockets close together. Hastings Sunrise, Main Street and Mount Pleasant were competitive enough to feel like seller’s markets, and some homes were getting multiple offers, while Collingwood and South Vancouver sat heavy with inventory. You can be in the same part of town and see polar opposites.

This isn’t guesswork. You can check what’s really selling on the sold map (free account). Political uncertainty, tariffs, federal chaos? That’s your playground.

Are Vancouver condos and townhomes holding up?

Attached homes are holding better than detachables, but soft spots exist:

• West Side condos/townhomes: Strong in the lower price bands, softer as you move up. Inventory climbed fast over a few months.

• East Side condos/townhomes: Seller-friendly in general, but there’s a soft price band where few homes are trading.

The East Side attached market was the most competitive in the city, with most communities running hot and South Vancouver as the main soft spot. It did have a gap just under the $1 million mark that I’d look at for an entry point. On the West Side, Kitsilano, Fairview and Shaughnessy were busy, while South Granville and Southwest Marine were heavily in buyers’ favour. Big duplexes, townhomes and luxury condos at the top of the attached price range also had plenty of selection and few sales. The price trend for condos and townhomes has been mostly flat since 2022, after a run-up that started in 2020. The current numbers by area and price band are in the report.

If you know the submarkets, you can snag deals. Miss the data? You’ll overpay.

Why does timing matter for Vancouver buyers?

• Detached market teetering on buyer-favorable territory.

• Inventory keeps rising month after month, and that means more choice for buyers.

• I expect big supply shortages in 3 to 8 years, especially for land. If you can grab land now, you’re set for massive long-term gains.

The land point matters most to me. With the province’s land use changes, older homes are being torn down for duplexes and multiplexes. If you can get the biggest lot you can afford and hold it, you’ll be sitting on some very valuable real estate on the East Side as that supply shortage arrives.

How long should you plan to hold?

A market with this much opportunity also calls for caution. I’ve unfortunately had people phone me for help after taking bad advice, getting into the wrong units and losing a lot of money. You don’t want to compromise yourself financially to catch a deal. My advice used to be to plan on staying 3 to 5 years. With the price swings and the long flat stretch we’ve seen, I now tell clients to plan on a minimum of 5 years, and preferably seven. If you do buy at a peak, a long-term plan is what keeps you okay.

Sellers aren’t shut out either. Some pockets are still competitive, and more inventory is coming from sellers I know personally. Your job is to understand exactly where your home sits, because the right answer for one sub-area can be wrong a few blocks away.

Markets this soft don’t last forever. Hesitation = lost opportunity.

Kyle’s Pro Tip
Focus on data, not hype. Know which streets, which subareas, which price bands give you leverage. Don’t get trapped by noise, get tactical.

📞 Book your 30-minute strategy call now
Don’t scroll and hope. Act. Let’s map out exactly where you should be looking in Vancouver right now to take advantage of this rare buyer’s market.

NOTE: this representation is based in whole or in part on data generated by the Chilliwack & District Real Estate Board, Fraser Valley Real Estate Board or Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver which assume no responsibility for its accuracy.