The West Van Mayor Tried to Flip 23 Discounted Westbank Condos. The Lender Said No.
BC Home Sales Fell 9 Percent in September. Rate Hike Speculation Blamed.
Vancouver Office Construction Is at a 15-Year Low. Vacancy Hit 11.8 Percent.
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The West Van Mayor Tried to Flip 23 Discounted Westbank Condos. The Lender Said No.
Mayor Mark Sager (West Van) reportedly tried to buy 23 completed, unsold condos at Westbank's Sanctuary project in Horseshoe Bay with the intention of flipping them. The deal collapsed when Westbank could not discharge the mortgage held by QuadReal, which refused to absorb the loss on the discounted prices Westbank had agreed to.Sager sued. In the lawsuit, QuadReal "stated plainly that they would not discharge the mortgage." Sager now says he was acting for a friend, not as the true purchaser. The lawsuit was filed in February but surfaced in a Globe and Mail investigation this week.The timing is sharp: West Van is in the middle of a mayoral election, and challenger LaPointe has already asked why the incumbent was acting like a real estate agent. Three ZONED threads collide in one story: unsold condo inventory, developer distress, and the West Van leverage unwind.
BC Home Sales Fell 9 Percent in September. Rate Hike Speculation Blamed.
Published today by Canadian Press and CTV News: provincial home sales dropped 9 percent in September. The province's real estate board attributed the decline to interest rate hike speculation weighing on buyer activity.That is the second month in a row with sales printing below last year, and the first time this cycle a BC board has pointed to speculation about a rate HIKE rather than a cut as the drag on the market. The bond market and the mortgage market are starting to disagree with each other out loud.This is the natural second chapter of what Issue 27 opened with: Metro's apartment segment collapsing, fixed rates climbing 25bps in a week while variable fell 15. September just put a provincial number on it.
Vancouver Office Construction Is at a 15-Year Low. Vacancy Hit 11.8 Percent.
Cushman and Wakefield data this week: new office construction in Vancouver has fallen to its lowest level in 15 years, and the office vacancy rate has climbed to 11.8 percent, the highest level since the early 2000s.This is the structural shift most people are not watching. Residential has been the whole conversation for three years. The office market has been quietly bleeding tenants into hybrid work and watching new supply dry up at the same time.Why it matters for residential readers: commercial office conversions to apartments are now on the table in a serious way for the first time since the pandemic. The buildings exist. The tenants do not. The math is finally forcing a conversation.
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A 3 Bed 2 Bath Just Hit the Investor Board at 8.7% Yield.#307 at 13475 96th Avenue in Whalley, Surrey, at $449,900. A 3 bed, 2 bath, 1,113 sqft condo at $404 per square foot. OfferValue® estimates the unit at $462,000. Asking is $12,100 below the model and roughly 24 percent below the 2025 BC Assessment of $589,000.At 20% down and today’s best insured 5 year fixed of 4.34%, all-in monthly carry is $2,607 (mortgage $1,960 + strata $446 + tax $201). OfferRent® estimates rent at $3,260. After ~$683 in principal paydown, your real monthly cost is $1,924, leaving +$1,336 in effective cash flow plus $683 in equity build. Cash-on-cash ~17.8%, gross yield 8.7%.At today’s best insured 5 year variable of 3.25%, the same unit all-in costs $2,397 a month (mortgage $1,750 + strata $446 + tax $201). After ~$792 in principal paydown, your real monthly cost is $1,605, leaving +$1,655 in effective cash flow plus $792 in equity build. Cash-on-cash ~22.1%.First three bedroom pick this section has featured. 1,113 sqft is a family rental, not a 1 bed investor flip. BC home sales fell 9 percent in September. Family rental demand did not.
$758 a Square Foot for a 7 Bedroom House on Vancouver’s Westside.1505 W 62nd Avenue, Vancouver (South Granville) at $2,499,900. A 7 bed, 6 bath, 3,297 sqft Vancouver Westside detached at $758 per square foot.Open houses this Saturday and Sunday, 2 to 4pm. Walk the yard yourself.Issue 27 Story 1 told you Metro’s detached segment held while apartments collapsed. September detached sales were actually up 4.2 percent year over year. The segment was supposed to be the one that would not crack.Then this listing arrived. South Granville, Vancouver proper, 3,297 sqft of detached house, going out under court order. $758 per sqft on a seven bedroom family home three blocks off Granville Street.What this week’s foreclosure board tells you: even the segment that held is not holding for everyone.
Strata Management BC: Fees, Licensing, 8 Questions to Ask
A strata management company runs your building's money and paperwork, but the council still makes the decisions. Here is how BC licenses them, what they charge and how to judge one.
Hamidreza Etebarian - October 12, 2026
Strata management is the paid administration of a strata corporation's money, records, contractors and bylaw paperwork, carried out by a company licensed by the BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA). It touches a lot of BC homes. Metro Vancouver has 8,113 condos and 4,039 townhouses listed for sale on Zealty today (October 12, 2026), at median asking
Click Any Black Dot. See 23 Years of Sales History.
Open the Zealty map, click Options at the bottom right, turn on Property Boundary Grid, and zoom in.Now every property shows a black dot. Each dot is a sale on that parcel, going back twenty three years. Hover or click to see the price and the year. 3598 Trafalgar sold for $2.65 million in 2014. The lot two doors down at $3.7 million. The one on the corner at $2.89 million. Every single property on the block, not just the ones currently listed.Useful for buyers walking a street, sellers pricing their home, and anyone building a full picture of a block without opening a hundred listings.
The Vancouver You Could Not Find On a Map of Vancouver.• Belcarra is a village of about 700 people on a small peninsula poking into Indian Arm. One road in. One road out. Thirty minutes from downtown Vancouver on a Sunday, forty-five on a Friday.• If you have driven past Belcarra Regional Park on your way to hike White Pine Beach, you have crossed through the municipality already. You just did not notice, because there was nothing to notice.• $1,738 per sqft on waterfront. That is standard West Van pricing, except the view is Indian Arm, Croker Island, and the mountains behind Deep Cove.• No through-traffic, no Starbucks, no SkyTrain plans. Belcarra opted out of modern Vancouver years ago and has stayed opted out.• Twenty minutes to Suter Brook. Thirty to Yaletown. The commute is shorter than West Van. The neighbours fewer.The municipal docks are the main civic infrastructure. Which tells you everything you need to know about why someone would move here.If your idea of waterfront is sand, English Bay, and a seawall full of strollers, keep scrolling. If it is a dock, a quiet morning, and nobody you do not recognize, this is where you move.
Hamidreza Etebarian leads the editorial process behind Zealty’s content. He works directly with the team to shape everything from market reports to general real estate guides into clear, reliable, and decision-focused pieces.
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