Open Houses in Metro Vancouver: How to Use Them

What you walk into depends on which region you pick

The property mix is regional, not universal. Vancouver West had 258 open houses that weekend, and 139 of them were condos. Vancouver East had almost the same total at 257, but 135 were townhouses, and only 66 were condos. Two neighbouring halves of one city, two completely different Saturday afternoons.

• Condo led: Vancouver West 139 of 258, Coquitlam 91 of 194, Burnaby North 69 of 111, Burnaby South 55 of 91.
• Townhouse led: Vancouver East 135 of 257, Langley 68 of 142, Surrey 53 of 100, Cloverdale 18 of 34.
• Detached led: Maple Ridge 43 of 80, West Vancouver 36 of 58, Sardis 33 of 61, North Delta 19 of 27.

Richmond sits in the middle, with 200 open houses split into 86 condos, 66 townhouses and 48 detached homes. That makes it one of the few regions where you can compare all three property types in a single afternoon without moving your car twice. If you are still weighing a condo against a townhouse, an afternoon like that is worth more than any spreadsheet.

What to do in the twenty minutes you are inside

• Ask how long it has been listed and what the price has done. The answer matters, and so does how readily it is given. You can check the full price history of any BC listing yourself before you arrive.
• Count the other buyers. A room holding eight groups on a Sunday afternoon is a very different negotiation from a room holding none.
• Look at what photographs cannot carry. Traffic noise with the window open, the smell in the corridor, the real width of the parking stall, how the elevator sounds, water staining at the base of a closet.
• In a strata, ask about the documents. The depreciation report, the contingency reserve fund, and any special levy under discussion. Our Strata Browser covers more than 14,000 BC strata buildings, and our guide to assessing a condo building before you buy works through the paperwork in order.
• Do not negotiate at the door. Say as little as you can about your budget and your timeline. The agent hosting the open house works for the seller unless they tell you plainly that they do not.

Price is the one thing an open house cannot tell you

The number on the feature sheet is an opening position, not a market value. Between April and June 2026, homes in the suburbs around Metro Vancouver sold at 96.4% to 98.5% of their asking price and took 14 to 50 days to sell, measured from listing date to sold date. Langley townhouses sold at a median of 98.5% of ask in 20 days. Pitt Meadows condos sold at 96.4%, the deepest discount to ask in that group. Ladner detached homes sold in a median of 14 days.

That is a narrow band, and it changes how an open house is worth using. In a market that clears within a few percent of ask, the money is not in talking a seller down by ten percent. It is in picking the right listing, which means comparing what similar homes actually sold for rather than what the neighbours are asking, and knowing how long homes are taking to sell. When the listing is fresh, and the room is busy, the likelier outcome is a multiple offer situation, not a bargain.

Bottom Line

An open house is a filter, not a market. Only 2,334 of 29,155 active BC listings held one on the weekend we measured; sessions run overwhelmingly on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, and what you walk through depends heavily on the region you choose. Use the visit for the things a photograph cannot show you, then check the price against real sold data before you write anything down. You can browse every active listing across British Columbia on Zealty, see the full price history, and save a search that emails you when something new opens its doors.