Metro Just Printed Its Weakest October Since The Financial Crisis.
The December Hike Just Went Live.
The Apartment Benchmark Just Broke $675K.
Investor's Scoreboard
Hot Foreclosure
Selected Blog Post
Feature Spotlight
Listing We Love
What Real Estate Creators are Talking About This Week
Vancouver Downtown Housing Market Overview
October, 2026
For Sale Inventory:
1,079
New Listings:
385
Median Sale to List Ratio:
95.8%
Median Sale Price:
$731,000
Sold Properties:
119
% Sold Over Asking:
7.6%
Median Days on the Market:
21 days
The Takeaway
Fall supply kept filling the pipe through October, with new listings adding to downtown’s active count, but only 11.0% of inventory moved in the month, essentially matching Metro’s September absorption rate (11.1%) even though the Metro print was already weak. The median sale price held above the Metro apartment benchmark, but not by much. Days on market stayed fast, which tells you the priced-right units move quickly in a downtown that is almost entirely condos. 92.4% of sellers took a discount, with the average buyer closing 4.2% under ask. More inventory, patient buyers, blinking sellers. Deals happen fast. Only at the right number.
Metro Just Printed Its Weakest October Since The Financial Crisis.
GVR's October 2026 stats hit the wire. Total sales landed at 2,024, down 10.2 percent from October 2025 and 22.5 percent below the 10-year seasonal average. New listings fell 11.6 percent YoY to 4,805 (still 1 percent above seasonal). Active listings at 15,688 are 24 percent above the 10-year seasonal average.The sales-to-active ratio printed at 13.4 percent overall. GVR flags anything below 12 percent as the trigger for sustained downward pressure. Detached came in at 11.6 percent, already under the line. Attached at 16.5 percent. Apartments at 13.5 percent.Composite benchmark now sits at $1,068,600, down 5.2 percent YoY. Detached down 7.0 percent to $1,775,200. Attached down 5.5 percent to $1,006,500. Apartments down 5.9 percent to $673,400.Chief Economist Andrew Lis called the month "suspenseful" and said the surprise rate hike plus the snap provincial election were the two events that froze everyone in place. Both buyers and sellers stepped back in October. The year, he said, has been "one step forward, one step back."Market impact. The thesis Issue 27 opened with (Metro apartment collapse) just put a $1,068,600 composite benchmark print on the record. Three straight months of month over month price declines. Detached is under GVR's absorption floor for the first time this cycle. The "how low does this go" question just got louder.
December Hike Odds: Near A Coin Flip.
The Bank of Canada's October 28 statement left the door open: "There could be a need to increase the policy rate further." Markets now price roughly a 40 percent chance of a second quarter-point hike at the December 9 decision. Issue 30 framed the October 28 hike as a one off. One week later, the market is calling December close to a coin flip.Prime is already 4.70 after the big banks passed the October hike through. If the Bank moves again in December, prime goes to 4.95. Variable rates move with it. Fixed rates, already drifting after October, would be forced higher a second time.Market impact. Buyers sitting on the fence just got a deadline. Pre approvals written before October 28 at 4.45 prime are holding a rate that no longer exists. Anyone pre approved since then has a 120 day hold that runs past December 9. GVR's Andrew Lis said some buyers may step in to use "rate holds that will soon be expiring." The December calendar just became the only calendar that matters.
The Apartment Benchmark Just Broke $675K.
Metro apartment benchmark landed at $673,400 in October. That is down $9,100 from September's $682,500, which is a 1.3 percent monthly drop and a 5.9 percent YoY decline. The last time Metro condos printed a one month drop that large outside of a pandemic quarter was 2018.The Vancouver Downtown data Issue 30 flagged (1,079 active, 119 sold, 11 percent absorption) was the leading edge. The broader Metro number just confirmed it. The segment Issue 27 said was collapsing has now broken through two sentimental price floors in six weeks: $700K in September, $675K in October.Market impact. For investors, OfferRent® has not moved, which means the gross yield math improves every time the price falls. The Investor Scoreboard picks from Issues 29 and 30 both become more interesting at current benchmarks, not less. For owners, the renewal at renewal problem compounds: a $750K pre sale closing in Q1 2027 is now closing into a comp set that just reset $9K lower in a single month.
Investor's Scoreboard
#102 6380 Buswell Street, RichmondThe segment Big Three Story 3 just said was collapsing, Metro apartments down 5.9 percent YoY to $673,400, is where this week’s pick lives. This is the fresh entry under the new benchmark.The math at 4.34 percent, 20 percent down, 25 year amortization: $83,000 down, $1,808 P and I, estimated $425 strata, $104 tax. All in carry roughly $2,337. OfferRent® $2,400. Cash flow plus $63 a month. Year one principal paydown $7,572. Net equity built $8,328 on $83,000 committed. Cash on cash 10.0 percent, plus $36,000 under intrinsic from day one.Last sold November 2005 at $170,000. The owner has been in the unit 21 years. 173 days on market says they are finally ready. The apartment benchmark just dropped $9,100 in a single month. The seller is handing you the asset at a 2024 price, already $36K below where OfferValue® puts fair value today.
Hot Foreclosure of the WeekA 1,652 sqft, 3 bed, 3 bath sub-penthouse on the 18th floor of West Cambie, the Richmond submarket Westbank and Concord built up through 2022 to 2024 as the next Metrotown. Asking $1,649,900, which is $998 per sqft. For a brand new Richmond tower unit with three bedrooms, that was the price three years ago.The October GVR numbers that ran in the Big Three this week told you where the apartment market was. Composite benchmark at $1,068,600. Apartment benchmark at $673,400, down $9,100 in a single month. This foreclosure is the headline statistic made concrete: a West Cambie three bedroom sub-penthouse getting handed to the court because nobody will pay 2022 pricing anymore.Three bedroom Richmond tower units were the exact SKU Westbank and Concord sold hardest to investors and family buyers during the 2022 to 2024 presale run. This is almost certainly a presale that completed into a comp set that no longer supports the number.For the buyer with a bid, this is the trade: a brand new three bed, three bath, top floor Richmond tower at a price the market will revisit in 2028 but you get to lock in now, under court order, during the exact month the apartment benchmark broke through $675K.
BC Housing Market October 2026: Sellers Pull Back, Sales Pick Up
Greater Vancouver closed October 2026 with 14,815 active listings at a $1,130,000 median and 53 days on market. Fraser Valley: 7,447 listings, $949,900. New listings fell 23 percent and sales rose 18 percent on the month, but sale prices are still down year over year and price cuts are back above a quarter of all listings.
Hamidreza Etebarian - November 1, 2026
Greater Vancouver closed October 2026 with 14,815 active residential listings, a median asking price of $1,130,000, and homes sitting a median of 53 days. Inventory barely moved: down 0.3 percent from the end of September and 0.9 percent below October 2025. What changed was the flow through it. Sales reported in October rose 17.9 percent on the month to
Click the Save Search button in the filter bar and the panel opens. Every search you have ever saved sits right there, from a King Edward foreclosure sweep you ran six months ago to a Belcarra waterfront filter you set up for your parents last summer. Click any one of them and the map instantly rebuilds with that filter applied, without you having to remember a single price band, neighbourhood, or property type you used. It is the fastest way to pick up a hunt exactly where you left off. Open the map, hit Save Search, and scroll the list.
The Lions Gate View From A West Van Address With A Famous Name• Arthur Erickson Place is a street in West Vancouver named to honour Canada’s most internationally recognized modernist architect. Simon Fraser University. The UBC Museum of Anthropology. Robson Square. The Canadian Chancery in Washington. Erickson lived and worked out of West Van his entire career. The city gave him the street.• The balcony is wide enough to live on. From it, the Lions Gate Bridge is not a landmark you squint to find. It is the view. Water, mountains, the North Shore skyline, and the bridge all framed by the glass.• Walking distance to the Ambleside seawall and Park Royal. A ten minute drive over the Lions Gate to Lower Lonsdale or downtown. The best West Van address is the one that gets you back to the city fastest without ever leaving it.• You are buying the view, the balcony, and an address that reads like a quiet tribute to one of Canada’s great design minds. Three bedrooms? Two? You decide what kind of life gets to wake up to a bridge view.
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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