Threat of tariffs puts a damper on B.C. home sales | Daily Hive

Construction cranes for residential towers in North Vancouver. (Adam Melnyk/Shutterstock)

In a market bulletin this week, British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) shared that home sales of all types across the province fell by 9.6 per cent in March 2025 compared to the same month in 2024.

The number of home sales last month reached 5,917 units.

As well, the number of homes sold over the first quarter of 2025, totalling about 15,200 units, is down by 5.2 per cent compared to the first three months of 2024.

Furthermore, overall home prices in B.C. dropped by 4.8 per cent from $963,000 in March 2025 to $1.012 million in March 2024.

The residential sales dollar volume of $14.54 billion over the first three months of 2025 is eight per cent lower than the first quarter of 2024.

The year-to-date residential sales volumes reached $6.71 billion in the jurisdiction of Greater Vancouver Realtors and $2.68 billion in the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (which includes some major areas of Metro Vancouver, including Surrey), representing a year-over-year decrease of 11.4 per cent and 23.6 per cent, respectively.

While borrowing costs are now on a downward trend, driven by the Bank of Canada’s recent cuts to the policy interest rate, the previously expected gains from this monetary policy move have been more than offset by the economic uncertainty arising from the emerging Canada-U.S. trade war initiated by President Donald Trump’s threat of tariffs.

“Buyers continued to shift back to the sidelines in March,” said BCREA Chief Economist Brendon Ogmundson in a statement.

“The economic uncertainty surrounding potential tariffs on Canadian goods has some potential buyers hesitant, particularly in the province’s larger markets.”

BCREA also cited that the global Economic Policy Uncertainty index — by economics professors and researchers at Northwestern University and Stanford University — has measured record-high levels of economic uncertainty in Canada as of early 2025 due to the threat of tariffs. In fact, the degree of this uncertainty is exponentially higher than the peaks of the 2008/2009 financial crisis and the 2020 pandemic.

BCREA’s statistics are based on its compilation of data recorded by the province’s regional-based real estate boards, including Greater Vancouver Realtors and Fraser Valley Real Estate Board.

BC Real Estate Association

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