Drop in home prices spurs new sales activity in the Lower Mainland | Daily Hive

Drop in home prices spurs new sales activity in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley

The downtown New Westminster skyline, including the new Pier West towers on the Fraser River waterfront. (EB Adventure Photography/Shutterstock)

After a sluggish first half of the year, signs of renewed housing activity emerged across the Lower Mainland in August 2025, with softer home prices drawing some buyers back into the market.

The jurisdiction of Greater Vancouver Realtors (GVR), previously known as the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV), includes not only Vancouver, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, New Westminster, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Richmond, South Delta, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, and Bowen Island, but also the Sunshine Coast, Squamish, and Whistler.

Other areas of Metro Vancouver are under the jurisdiction of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (FVREB), which covers Surrey, Langley, White Rock, and North Delta, as well as the Fraser Valley cities of Abbotsford and Mission.

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According to GVR, 1,959 homes were sold in August 2025, up 2.9 per cent from August 2024. While sales remain 19.2 per cent below the region’s 10-year seasonal average, activity picked up most notably in single-family detached house and townhouse segments, which both saw double-digit year-over-year increases in the number of transactions.

The benchmark price for all residential properties in GVR’s jurisdiction fell to $1.150 million — down 3.8 per cent from August 2024 and 1.3 per cent from July 2025.

Single-family detached houses posted a benchmark price of $1.95 million in August 2025, down 4.8 per cent year-over-year and down 1.2 per cent compared to July 2025. Townhouses stood at $1.08 million, representing a 3.5 per cent drop year-over-year and a 1.8 per cent drop from July 2025, while condominiums hovered at $0.734 million, representing a decrease of 4.4 per cent year-over-year and a 1.3 per cent decline from July 2025.

“Prices have eased around two per cent since the start of the year and are down about one per cent month over month in August, signalling that sellers have been willing to lower price expectations,” said Andrew Lis, the director of economics and data analytics for GVR.

“As sellers’ and buyers’ expectations have become more aligned, transaction volume has picked up. Newly listed properties remain in line with their 10-year seasonal average however, which when paired with increasing sales activity, is likely to diminish the available inventory. This also means the window of plentiful opportunity for buyers may soon begin closing if these trends continue.”

Inventory also climbed in GVR’s jurisdiction over the course of August 2025. Active listings rose to 16,242 units — a 17.6 per cent increase from the same month last year and nearly 37 per cent above the 10-year seasonal average. This suggests that while more buyers are stepping in, competition remains tempered by choice.

As for FVREB’s jurisdiction, however, the picture was somewhat different. FVREB reported 931 home sales in August 2025 — down 22 per cent from July 2025 and 13 per cent compared to the same month in 2024. Sales activity was 36 per cent below the 10-year average, keeping the region firmly in buyer’s market territory.

With 10,445 active listings in August 2025 and new supply easing from July 2025, the sales-to-active listings ratio dropped to nine per cent, well below the 12 per cent to 20 per cent range considered balanced. The overall benchmark price for all residential property types in FVREB slipped to $0.936 million, down nearly one per cent from July 2025.

Within FVREB’s jurisdiction in August 2025, the benchmark price for single-family houses reached $1.172 million, representing a 4.1 per cent drop from the same month in 2024 and a 0.7 per cent drop from July 2025. For townhouses, the benchmark price hovered at $0.808 million, which is a 4.5 per cent year-over-year decrease and a 0.9 per cent decline from July 2025. As for condominiums, the benchmark price was $0.514 million, which is a 5.9 per cent year-over-year decrease and a drop of one per cent from July 2025.

“Current market conditions are allowing buyers the opportunity to make bold offers, especially for properties that have been on the market for a while and where sellers may be more motivated. As in all transactions, timing is everything and we expect to see more buyers come off the sidelines heading into fall to take advantage of the lower price floor,” said Tore Jacobsen, chair of FVREB.

FVREB CEO Baldev Gill added, “The economic uncertainty that has shaped the housing market for much of 2025 now seems to have been factored into market dynamics, as evidenced by a sustained softening of prices. Some buyers who had been holding off are starting to recognize that waiting for greater certainty could mean missing opportunities, particularly in a market where conditions now clearly favour buyers.”

Listings spent an average of 47 days on the market for single-family detached homes, 36 days for townhouses, and 42 days for condominiums within GVR’s jurisdiction, compared to 38 days for detached homes, 32 days for townhouses, and 41 days for condominiums in FVREB’s jurisdiction.

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