Vancouver Housing Market Report

Greater Vancouver Housing Market Overview

Note: The MLS HPI benchmark price represents the value of a ‘typical’ home in the area.

Home Prices by Property Type

In October 2026, the average home price in Metro Vancouver was $1,230,585. The average sale price of detached houses decreased by 5.1% from October 2025 to reach $1,988,382, which is 4.9% higher than in September. The average price of an attached house in Metro Vancouver increased by 0.8% relative to last October to reach $1,193,614, which is 2.8% higher than in September. Apartment prices declined 9.3% year-over-year to $693,748, which is 8.7% lower than last month.

The benchmark price of homes in Metro Vancouver was $1,068,600 in October 2026, a 5.2% decrease year-over-year and a 0.7% monthly decrease. Benchmark prices of detached houses in Vancouver declined 7.0% over the past year and fell 0.5% over the past month to reach $1,775,200 for October 2026. Vancouver's townhouse benchmark price is $1,006,500, down 5.5% year-over-year and down 1.0% month-over-month in October 2026. Apartment benchmark prices decreased 5.9% year-over-year and 1.3% month-over-month to $673,400.

Terms and conditions apply. Rates are per annum and subject to change without notice. Eligible for CDIC deposit insurance. See WealthONE's website for current rates and applicable balance tiers. Highest rate in Canada for RRSP HISA accounts, as confirmed by WOWA as of July 24 2026

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Terms and conditions apply. Rates are per annum and subject to change without notice. Eligible for CDIC deposit insurance. See WealthONE's website for current rates and applicable balance tiers. Highest rate in Canada for RRSP HISA accounts, as confirmed by WOWA as of July 24 2026

Sales & Inventory

In October 2026, 2,024 homes in Vancouver were sold, representing a 10.2% decrease from October 2025, though sales were up 18% from September. These sales included 643 detached homes, 892 apartments, and 468 attached homes. Metro Vancouver's housing market had 15,688 active listings at the end of October 2026, down 4.3% from last year and 4.3% below September's 16,394 listings. Inventory remains well above the 10-year seasonal average of 12,649.

The 4,805 new listings this month represent an 11.6% decrease year-over-year and an 18% drop from September, as sellers stepped back more sharply than buyers. These numbers put Vancouver's sales-to-active listings ratio at 12.9% for October 2026, compared with 10.5% for September 2026. Vancouver's sales-to-new-listings ratio (SNLR) was 42% for October. At about 7.8 months of inventory the market remains in buyer's territory, but it tightened noticeably over the month as sales rebounded and new listings thinned.

Long-Term Trends

Metro Vancouver remains one of the most expensive housing markets in Canada. Vancouver has been a pricey housing market for many years, and its benchmark price has risen by only 6.6% over the past 10 years (up to Q3 2026), compared with about 32% inflation over the same decade. In other words, a Vancouver home has lost ground in real terms — and it managed that despite a growing population, because 10 years ago the Vancouver housing market was near the top of a frenzy.

Metro Vancouver's benchmark home price has increased by 206% since the first quarter of 2005, which translates into a cumulative annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.3%.

Vancouver vs Toronto

Toronto's competition with Vancouver regarding home unaffordability is relatively recent, as Greater Toronto home prices have climbed by 32% over the decade to reach a benchmark price of $926,900 in Q3 2026. This 10-year growth is despite a 27% price decline from the peak of $1,264,100 in Toronto benchmark home prices in Q1 2022. Toronto's home price growth over the past decade was still well ahead of the 6.6% rise in Vancouver home prices over the same stretch. Given that Vancouver began its restrictive zoning at least two decades before Toronto, it is no surprise that Vancouver became an unaffordable city much earlier than Toronto.

A 20-Year Perspective

Over the past 20 years, the 141% growth in Vancouver home prices has been much faster than either the 54% inflation or the approximately 90% wage growth. In other words, building houses (producing shelter) has been more difficult than making most other goods and services. Many claim that land is a limited resource, and thus house building faces a natural limitation. This is incorrect, as there is no natural limitation on increasing population density.

For example, the Vancouver CMA land area is 2,879 km², while the population of Vancouver CMA is 3,088,000; thus the population density in the Vancouver metropolitan area is around 1,070/km², while the population density in the city-state of Singapore is approximately 8,100/km². So land is not the limiting factor for sheltering people. In cities like Vancouver, the primary constraint on new housing is not land scarcity but restrictive municipal zoning and development regulations.

Macroeconomic Factors

Heightened economic uncertainty stemming from trade tensions between Canada and the United States continues to weigh on Canadian housing markets across multiple regions. A deterioration in trade relations reduces consumer confidence and business investment, leading to fewer jobs in trade-dependent sectors and putting downward pressure on sales volumes and property values. The effects remain most pronounced in regions with economies closely tied to U.S. trade, such as Ontario's manufacturing corridor and British Columbia's forestry sector.

October brought two added sources of hesitation. The Bank of Canada raised its policy rate by a quarter point to 2.50% on October 28, 2026 — its first increase after a long run of holds — moving to contain the risk that persistently high energy prices feed into the broader cost of goods and services. Headline inflation has run near 3% since the spring and is expected to climb toward 3.5% by year-end, though the Bank's core measures remain close to 2%. The prime rate moves up with it, lifting variable mortgage costs just as affordability had been improving on lower prices, and the Bank signalled it could tighten again, with its next decision set for December 9.

At the same time, a snap provincial election on October 25 returned a BC Conservative majority and ended nearly a decade of NDP government in British Columbia. GVR's chief economist pointed to the election, alongside the rate hike, as reasons buyers and sellers paused in October to recalibrate.

The incoming government has signalled a different housing approach than its predecessor. It committed during the campaign to keep the speculation-and-vacancy and foreign-buyers taxes, while returning density and zoning decisions to municipalities, removing the NDP's provincial housing-completion targets, and promising faster permitting and lower construction charges. The near-term effect on the market is less any single measure than the pause itself, as buyers, sellers and builders wait to see how the plans take shape — including whether handing zoning back to local councils, which set most development fees, speeds new supply or quietly slows it.

A more structural force is also shaping demand in Canada's largest cities: a sharp slowdown in immigration. After Ottawa moved in 2024 to curb both streams — lowering permanent-resident targets to 380,000 a year for 2026 through 2028, down from a previous 500,000 goal, and, for the first time, aiming to shrink the temporary-resident population toward roughly 5% of the total — population growth cooled dramatically. Revised Statistics Canada estimates released in September 2026 show national growth stalling around the turn of the year, with a marginal dip in the fourth quarter of 2025 before growth resumed; by mid-2026 the population was up about 0.5% from a year earlier — still positive, but a fraction of the roughly 3% pace of the 2022–2023 boom. British Columbia traced a similar path, slipping modestly for two quarters before edging back up. Because temporary residents are overwhelmingly renters, the cooling lands first on rental demand, but a far slower pace of household formation also thins underlying demand for ownership housing and reinforces the elevated-inventory, soft-price backdrop still visible in Vancouver.

While monetary policy impacts all of Canada, real estate remains highly local. Ontario housing market and the BC housing market, which heavily influence national price trends, saw housing bubbles fueled by ultra-low interest rates post-2008 and during the pandemic.

Regulatory & Structural Constraints

Over the past few decades, municipal restrictions on housing supply have kept availability low while investors have leveraged borrowing to acquire more properties. This occurred despite Ontario and British Columbia prioritizing tenant security over landlord property rights. The belief in perpetual home price appreciation gave mortgage rates a key role in shaping the market. However, recent volatility challenges this assumption, encouraging more disciplined borrowing and reducing the influence of monetary policy on housing.

Home Prices in Vancouver

Metro Vancouver Housing Market Statistics for All Property Types

Market Overview for Detached Homes in Metro Vancouver

Market Overview for Attached Homes in Metro Vancouver

Market Overview for Condo Apartments in Metro Vancouver