QUICK ANSWER

More than 5,000 finished condos across Metro Vancouver have never sold, and the homes sitting longest are the big ones, not the shoeboxes. Developers rarely cut the published price because a public discount reprices every unit in the building, so the money moves through closing credits and incentives instead. That means the sold comparables you pull on a new building can read higher than what buyers actually paid

Prefer to watch? The video version is below. The written breakdown follows.

There are two numbers in the September Real Property Data briefing that do not sit comfortably together.

More than 5,000 finished homes in Metro Vancouver have keys ready and no buyer. At the same time, developers are holding their price sheets steady.

Both are true, and the reason why is the most useful thing in this report for anyone buying or selling a Vancouver condo right now.

WHAT 5,000 UNSOLD HOMES ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE

Real Property Data counted more than 5,000 unsold condominium homes across 164 completed Metro Vancouver projects as of September 2026. Not under construction. Finished, with people already living in the buildings.

Valued at the prices comparable homes achieved in 2026, that is $4.45 billion of housing. About 4.3 million square feet of it.

That figure estimates what the homes are worth. It says nothing about what developers owe on them.

Ownership is concentrated. Of the 89 developers holding finished unsold stock, five hold 1,809 units between them. Ten hold roughly half of everything.

THE SUPPLY YOUR SEARCH DOESN'T SHOW

Your listing app shows you resale condos and some developer units. The rest moves through sales centres.

Practice varies by project. Some developer homes are listed on MLS and some are sold only in the sales centre, so what you see on your phone is a sample of the market rather than the whole of it.

That matters before you decide what any condo is worth.

WHO IS ACTUALLY STUCK

The story going around is that this is a glut of tiny investor shoeboxes nobody wants. The data says the opposite, and the gradient has no reversals in it.

Share of each size cohort still unsold:

Under 500 sq ft: 12.2 percent
500 to 699 sq ft: 13.6 percent
700 to 899 sq ft: 21.1 percent
900 to 1,099 sq ft: 22.9 percent
1,100 to 1,499 sq ft: 29.4 percent
1,500 sq ft and up: 41.6 percent

By bedroom count it runs the same direction. 27.3 percent of three-bedroom homes are unsold against 13.7 percent of one-bedrooms. The median unsold home is 850 square feet. The median one that sold is 735.

Height tells the same story. 24.3 percent of homes above the twentieth floor are unsold, which is the stock that carried the pro forma when these buildings were planned.

If you have spent four years trying to buy more space in this city, that is the best news in the report.

WHERE THE BACKLOG SITS

One caution before you get excited.

Of those 5,000-plus homes, Real Property Data counts 842 in the City of Vancouver. More than eight in ten sit somewhere else in the region.

This is not remote inventory, though. 3,186 of these homes, 64 percent of the total, are within 800 metres of a SkyTrain station. 1,460 are within 400 metres.

So the stock is transit-connected and it is mostly not in Vancouver. A condo forty minutes from the neighbourhood you want is no substitute for the neighbourhood you want. Your competition is the set of homes you would realistically choose instead. Same area, similar size, similar monthly costs.

The regional number tells you the market has a problem. The local count tells you how much room you have.

HOW A FINISHED BUILDING ENDS UP UNSOLD

It starts with how these projects get financed.

A condo tower takes years. Developers sell presales to secure construction financing. You will hear that lenders require 70 percent of a building pre-sold. Altus Group describes that figure as a lending convention rather than a regulation, and BCREA's CEO puts the working threshold closer to 60 percent. It varies by project and by lender.

So a tower can break ground with a third of its homes unsold. Demand shifts during the build. By completion, some of those homes never found a buyer.

There is a second route in. Presale buyers who signed in a stronger market are closing at today's values. BCFSA warns that a lender can appraise a finished presale below the contract price, and the buyer covers that gap in cash. Picture a $900,000 contract and an $800,000 appraisal.

Walking away carries its own bill. BCFSA warns the buyer risks the deposit, and that the developer can pursue the difference between the contract price and whatever the home eventually sells for, plus legal costs.

WHY DEVELOPERS WON'T PUBLISH A DISCOUNT

Here is the part that explains everything else.

A published price cut reprices the entire building. Every home still available, and every home already sold to somebody who signed last year. A developer will not do that to his own price sheet, and his lender has a view on it.

What he will do is deal with you one buyer at a time, at the table, if you ask.

WHAT A SALES CENTRE OFFERED MY CLIENTS

Three months ago I was working with clients on a completed building in Surrey. People had already moved in. These were finished homes that had never sold.

The sales centre told us they would come down $5,000 on a home listed at $369,000. Then they told us how.

The contract price would stay at $369,000. The $5,000 would come back to my clients as a rebate at closing.

I asked why. The answer was that they did not want the lower number showing up on MLS. The moment it does, the next buyer walking into that building has a new starting point, or asks them to match it on the spot.

So the sale records at $369,000. My clients pay $364,000. Anybody pulling sold comparables in that building sees the first number.

That is one building and one conversation, and I cannot speak for every developer. It did change how I read sold data on new construction, and it is why I always ask what is coming off at closing.

My clients did not take that deal. They walked, because they wanted more space than that home had. Which is the size data all over again.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU

IF YOU ARE BUYING

Widen the search. Put completed developer homes beside resale in the same area. Ask the sales centre for the full availability list and which homes you can walk through today.

Ask a sharper question than how the project is doing. Ask how many homes are unsold on your floor and the two floors above it. That is who you compete with the day you go to sell.

Negotiate the whole package. Price, closing credit, parking, storage, upgrades, appliance package, completion date.

Price the extras at what they are worth to you. A $15,000 upgrade in a brochure adds $15,000 to the brochure. A parking stall you will never use is worth nothing.

Compare the effective number. One condo at $800,000 with no credit, another at $820,000 with a real $30,000 credit, nets out at $790,000 before taxes and other costs. Confirm with your lender how a credit gets treated before you count on it.

Get every term in writing. The dollar amount, the timing, the conditions. A promise in a sales centre does not close.

IF YOU ARE SELLING

Everything above is pointed at you.

Your competition is bigger than the resale listings you can see. Somewhere near you a developer is holding finished homes, carrying a construction loan, and watching his own month end.

Think about what that sales centre offered my clients. Five thousand dollars at closing, and the price sheet never moved. You cannot do that. You cannot hand somebody a closing credit, a parking stall, an appliance package and a new home warranty and keep your list price where it is.

So stop pricing against resale comparables alone. Find the closest completed buildings still holding developer homes, work out what a buyer nets there after credits, and price against that number.

Then lead with what a developer cannot put on a price sheet. Your building has years of strata minutes, a depreciation report, and a contingency fund with a real balance. A new building has a disclosure statement and a promise. Your buyer walks through the actual home and gets keys, with no completion window and no deposit sitting in trust while a building goes up.

Have your strata documents ready the day you list.

WHERE I LAND

Real Property Data estimates about 40 months to clear what is already built, at the pace of the first half of 2026, roughly 125 presale sales a month across these buildings. That assumes nothing else completes, and 2026 has been a heavy completion year.

Meanwhile CMHC reports Metro Vancouver condo starts fell another 40 percent in the first half of 2026, the weakest first half since 2011. A start is counted once the concrete footings are poured, so that is a separate measurement from finished homes standing unsold. CMHC warns that fewer starts today can mean fewer completions in the years ahead.

And 1,337 of these finished homes have been standing unsold for more than two years already.

Somebody is carrying interest, taxes and strata fees on every one of them, every month. If you are buying, that carrying cost is the strongest card you hold. If you are selling, it is the clock your competition is running against.

Before you ask what the seller will come down, ask what else you could buy.

FAQ

Are these 5,000 condos empty?

No. The count measures homes that have not sold, not homes that are unoccupied. These are completed buildings with residents already living in them. Nothing in the data measures occupancy.

Can I just find these on MLS?

Some of them. Practice varies by project, and a share of developer inventory moves through sales centres rather than public listings. Ask the sales centre directly for the current availability list.

Does a glut mean I can expect a big discount?

Not automatically. 842 of these homes are in the City of Vancouver and more than eight in ten are elsewhere in the region. What matters is how many comparable homes compete with the one you want, not the regional total.

Why would a developer give a credit instead of lowering the price?

A published price cut reprices every remaining home in the building and every home already sold. A credit at closing moves money to one buyer without changing the price sheet or the recorded sale price.

Is the proposed unsold condo tax law?

No. The B.C. NDP has promised a tax on unsold condos as part of its campaign ahead of the October 24 election. There is no bill and no legislation behind it.

BOOK A PRICING STRATEGY CALL

CURIOUS WHAT YOUR CURRENT PLACE IS WORTH? GET A HOME EVALUATION

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No pressure. Just strategy before the noise.

Sources: Real Property Data, "Finished. Occupied. Unsold.", Metro Vancouver, September 2026. CMHC Housing Supply Report, Fall 2026. BCFSA Consumer Guide to Pre-sale Real Estate Purchases. Altus Group, December 2025. BCREA CEO video, June 2026.

Quick answer

A low strata fee in an older building is rarely a sign of good management. It is more often a sign that repairs and replacements are being delayed instead of funded. The cost does not disappear. It shows up later as a special levy, and it lands on whoever owns the unit at the time.

Everyone tells you low strata fees are a good sign. Buyers see a number lower than the building next door and read it as savings.

In an older building, that number usually means something else.

A low fee does not mean the building costs less to run. It means someone decided not to pay for something yet. Roofs, piping, elevators, parkades, and building envelope work still need funding whether the strata is saving for them or not. If the fee looks low compared to what those items actually cost, the difference has not disappeared. It has been deferred to the next owner.

I break down the full review process, including the documents themselves, in this video. If you'd rather watch than read, hit play below

What I found inside one Metro Vancouver building

I recently reviewed a building for a client where the fees had stayed flat for years. On paper it looked efficient. Inside the documents, a different story was buried in the numbers.

The council had paid themselves out of the contingency reserve fund without an owner vote. Once that surfaced, two of three council members resigned. One person was left running the building. Basic maintenance stopped. Broken mailboxes went unrepaired for months, and the management firm handling the books was reconsidering the contract.

About half the owners do not live in the building full time. The rest cycle through as investment tenants. Nobody in that mix had a reason to push for higher fees. The people who might have cared were not there to raise it.

This is not a rare pattern. It is the pattern that shows up whenever fees sit lower than they should for a building's age.

Reading the depreciation report and the Form K count

Two documents tell you more than the fee ever will.

The first is the depreciation report. This is where a strata is required to project upcoming repairs, their cost, and how the building plans to fund them. The number to watch for is not the total. It is the pattern of major items pushed to "next report" across multiple cycles. A roof that has been three years away for the last three reports is not three years away. It is being avoided.

The second is the Form K count. A Form K is filed when an owner rents out their unit. A building with a high number of them is a building with a heavy concentration of investor owners, and investor owners are often motivated to keep fees frozen to protect their cash flow, regardless of what the building actually needs. A high Form K count does not mean a building is poorly run. It means you should look harder at who is voting on the budget and why.

BC's reserve fund rules, and why the legal minimum isn't enough

Since late 2023, BC law has required stratas to contribute at least 10 percent of their operating budget to the contingency reserve fund each year, and to maintain a minimum reserve equal to 25 percent of that budget.

That sounds like protection. It is a floor, not a target.

The 25 percent figure is calculated against the operating budget, which covers day to day costs like insurance, cleaning, and utilities. It has nothing to do with what a roof, an elevator, or a parkade membrane actually costs to replace. A building can meet the legal minimum and still be nowhere close to funded for the work its depreciation report says is coming.

The deferral loophole that closed in 2024

Until July 1, 2024, a strata could vote at its AGM to defer its depreciation report for up to 18 months at a time. Some buildings used that provision repeatedly and pushed a real report off for close to a decade.

That loophole is closed now. A catch up deadline landed in July 2026 across Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, and the Capital Regional District, and buildings that deferred for years are now producing real numbers for the first time. Industry estimates put the true annual cost of condo repairs and levies at over $2,000 per unit for an average BC condo, and closer to $3,000 for older buildings. For a lot of owners, this is the first time that number has been in writing.

Insurance: the piece most buyers never check

Over 60 percent of BC stratas now carry water deductibles above $50,000. In older buildings, or buildings with a claims history, that number climbs to $250,000 or $500,000.

A single water event in a building like that is not a minor claim. It is a bill the strata absorbs directly, and that bill gets covered one of two ways: a fee increase or a special levy. Buildings with deferred maintenance and thin records often struggle to secure reasonable insurance at all, which pushes the cost onto owners either way.

This is not a line item most buyers think to ask about. It should be.

Why this shows up on resale, not on purchase

None of this is visible from the unit. New paint and a renovated kitchen tell you what the home looks like today. They tell you nothing about what ownership costs next.

The building I described above is not only a buyer's problem. If you already own there, the same governance gap and the same underfunded reserve are sitting on your equity right now. A special assessment affects roughly 1 in 6 Canadian condo buildings over any given five year stretch. When it lands, buyers do not just see a bill. They see a governance problem, and that narrows your buyer pool fast.

The checklist I run before recommending a purchase

Before I recommend a client move forward on a strata purchase, I check:

• The contingency reserve fund balance against the 25 percent legal minimum, and against what the depreciation report says the building actually needs

• Whether the building is self-managed, and how active the current council is

• The Form K count, as a signal for investor concentration

• Whether the depreciation report was authored by a licensed professional and dated after July 2025

• All three required funding models in the report, not just the executive summary

• The most recent insurance renewal and the current deductible

A renovated unit tells you how the home looks today. The documents tell you what ownership might actually cost next.

Final thought

A low fee is not a discount. It is a delay. The question is not whether the cost is coming. It is who happens to own the unit when it arrives.

If you are looking at a building right now and want a second set of eyes on the strata documents before you write an offer, I review the full package, free, before you commit to anything.

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Frequently asked questions

Are low strata fees always a bad sign? Not always. In a newer building with a well-funded reserve, a lower fee can genuinely reflect efficient management. In an older building, a fee that has stayed flat for years while major building components age is far more often a sign of deferred maintenance than savings.

What is a depreciation report? A depreciation report is a document that projects a building's major repairs and replacements over a set time horizon, along with their estimated cost and how the strata plans to fund them. It is the clearest picture available of what a building actually needs financially, separate from what the current fee suggests.

What does a high Form K count mean? A Form K is filed whenever an owner rents out their unit. A high count signals a building with a large share of investor owners, who are often motivated to keep fees low to protect their rental cash flow. It is worth checking, not because investor ownership is automatically bad, but because it changes who is voting on the budget and why.

What is the legal minimum for a strata's contingency reserve fund in BC? Since late 2023, BC law requires stratas to contribute at least 10 percent of the operating budget annually to the contingency reserve fund and maintain a minimum reserve of 25 percent of that budget. This is a legal floor, not a guarantee that the building is funded for its actual major repairs.

Why did depreciation reports change in 2024 and 2026? Until July 1, 2024, stratas could vote to defer their depreciation report every 18 months, and some deferred for close to a decade. That loophole closed in 2024. A catch up deadline landed in July 2026 for Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, and the Capital Regional District, forcing many buildings to produce a real report for the first time in years.

Sources: BC Strata Property Act, Greater Vancouver REALTORS®