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Metro Vancouver Market Update, August 2026: Sales Fell, but New Listings Fell Faster

Based on July 2026 Market Data


The Greater Vancouver REALTORS release leads with home sales losing momentum. Residential sales across Metro Vancouver totalled 2,061 in July, down 9.8 per cent from July 2025 and 18.6 per cent below the ten year seasonal average.

That reads as a demand problem.

But new listings in July came in at 4,991, down 11.5 per cent year over year, with apartment listings down nearly 17 per cent. New listings essentially matched the ten year seasonal average of 4,992, while sales ran far below it.

Demand stepped back. Supply stepped back harder. That distinction changes what the rest of the data means.


Metro Vancouver Overview

Total active listings sit at 16,476, down 4 per cent from July 2025 and still 26.8 per cent above the ten year average.

The overall sales to active listings ratio is 13 per cent, breaking down to 10.5 per cent for detached, 15.8 per cent for attached and 14 per cent for apartments.

GVR's own guidance is that downward price pressure tends to appear when the ratio sits below 12 per cent for a sustained period, and upward pressure above 20 per cent. Detached is inside the softening zone. Condos and townhomes sit just above it.

The composite benchmark price is $1,088,800, down 6.2 per cent year over year and 0.9 per cent from June. Apartment sales totalled 952, down 17.8 per cent year over year, with a benchmark of $688,000.


Vancouver Westside

Westside condos and townhomes came in at a 14 per cent sales ratio, down from 17 per cent in June.

The area average understates what happened underneath it. Kitsilano condos fell from a 42 per cent sales ratio in June to 20 per cent in July. Fairview fell from 45 per cent to 25 per cent. Those were the two strongest Westside condo pockets sixty days earlier.

False Creek moved the other direction, rising from 12 per cent to 23 per cent.

Westside detached sits at a 10 per cent sales ratio, selling roughly 3 per cent below list. Days on market rose from 19 in June to 29 in July. Point Grey is at 6 per cent with 103 active listings, Shaughnessy at 3 per cent with 80, South Granville at 6 per cent with 77.


Vancouver Eastside

Eastside condos and townhomes ran a 19 per cent sales ratio, up from 18 per cent in June.

The improvement came from the supply side rather than the demand side. Inventory fell 11 per cent from 767 to 684 while sales moved only from 139 to 132.

Meanwhile the sale to list price ratio dropped from 97 per cent to 93 per cent. Homes are selling at roughly 7 per cent below asking.

Eastside detached moved from a 15 per cent ratio in June to 10 per cent in July, but days on market remained at 16 with homes selling within 2 per cent of asking.


Downtown Vancouver

Downtown attached inventory has declined for five consecutive months: 1,033 in May, 975 in June, 917 in July. Sales over the same period ran 120, 143 and 134. The sales ratio held at 15 per cent in both June and July.

Homes are selling at 99 per cent of list price with 30 days on market.

By community, Coal Harbour and Yaletown are both at 18 per cent, the Downtown core at 14 per cent and the West End at 11 per cent.

Across all of Vancouver West, only two condo areas avoided a year over year benchmark decline: Coal Harbour, up 0.4 per cent, and False Creek, up 0.2 per cent. Yaletown condos are down 10.5 per cent and the West End is down 9.7 per cent over the same period.

Downtown three bedroom units are running an 8 per cent sales ratio with 102 listings against 8 sales.


Other Metro Vancouver Areas

North Vancouver condos and townhomes cooled from 20 per cent in June to 16 per cent in July. North Van detached moved from 23 per cent to 17 per cent.

West Vancouver detached is the softest segment in the report at 7 per cent, with homes selling 9 per cent below list price on average.

Richmond attached sits at 12 per cent and detached at 10 per cent. Tsawwassen detached is at 16 per cent and attached at 12 per cent. Ladner detached is at 11 per cent and attached at 15 per cent.


Interest Rates: What Is Actually Moving Fixed Mortgage Costs

The Bank of Canada held its policy rate at 2.25 per cent on July 15, 2026, its sixth consecutive hold. The next scheduled announcement is September 2, 2026.

Despite that stability, fixed mortgage rates have been drifting upward. Fixed rates are priced off Government of Canada bond yields rather than the overnight rate. The five year yield has been sitting just above 3 per cent and rose again in early August as tensions around the Strait of Hormuz pushed oil and global yields higher.

The US Federal Reserve held its benchmark rate on July 29, 2026, with three of twelve voting members dissenting in favour of an increase. Elevated US Treasury yields tend to pull Canadian yields with them.

The practical outcome is that the best five year fixed rates have moved back above 4 per cent while the best variable rates sit closer to 3.5 per cent.

This is a variable to watch rather than a forecast. Anyone timing a decision around rates should track the five year Government of Canada bond yield.


What This Means If You Are Buying

Negotiating room exists but is not evenly distributed. The deepest buyer's markets in this report are Westside detached above $3.5 million, West Vancouver, Point Grey, Shaughnessy and South Granville.

Downtown is the exception. Five consecutive months of falling inventory against steady sales means the assumption that more listings will always appear deserves testing.

Securing a rate hold is prudent given the bond market pressure described above.

What This Means If You Are Selling

The first price remains the most consequential decision.

The contrast between Eastside listings selling at 7 per cent below asking and Downtown listings selling at 1 per cent below asking is largely a pricing story rather than a market story.

Owners of Downtown one and two bedroom units are in one of the tighter supply positions in Metro Vancouver. Owners of Downtown three bedrooms, or Westside properties above $3 million, should price for the buyer pool that currently exists.


Where I Land

The July headline says momentum died. The data says sellers withdrew faster than buyers did.

Those are different markets requiring different strategies, and the difference only becomes visible at the neighbourhood level.


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Watch: Vancouver Duplexes, Mistakes That Cost Buyers Real Money

A duplex isn't just a smaller detached home. It's a shared structure, a shared decision-making process, and in Vancouver, usually a strata, whether it feels like one or not.

In this video I walk through the mistakes that turn a good duplex purchase into a slow-motion headache: skipping the inspection because "it's new," not checking who you're actually buying beside, and misreading the ownership structure until it's too late to matter.

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Data sources: Greater Vancouver REALTORS® for the Metro Vancouver overview, SnapStats for area and neighbourhood breakdowns, and the Bank of Canada for policy-rate context.

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