Over 11,500 pre-sale homes launched in Lower Mainland in 2024 | Daily Hive

Over 115 housing projects with more than 11,500 pre-sale units launched in Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley in 2024

A wood-frame apartment building under construction. (Imagenet/Shutterstock)

Over the course of 2024, over 115 new strata market residential projects were launched into pre-sales across Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.

According to MLA Canada, this represents a combined total of over 11,500 units entering pre-sale. However, this figure is below the five-year pre-sale average of about 140 project launches and nearly 14,000 units released.

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Much of 2024’s tally was driven by wood-frame construction, with about 50 project launches and over 5,000 units released.

The jurisdiction of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board — which includes major Metro Vancouver cities such as Surrey and Langley — saw more wood-frame project launches than the jurisdiction of Greater Vancouver Realtors (Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver), which reflects a “strong demand for affordable, end-user-focused housing.”

Conversely, reduced investor interest — due to policy changes and high interest rates — delayed many concrete project launches.

There were 1,946 pre-sale units released in 14 project launches in October 2024 and 997 pre-sale units released in seven project launches in November 2024. Out of the November 2024 pre-sale releases, 236 units were sold, representing a pre-sale absorption rate of 24%.

For December 2024, MLA Canada forecasts a negligible release of 229 pre-sale units in two wood-frame projects, which aligns with the typical holiday slowdown pattern each year in the months of November and December.

“Many developers who began previews in October have decided to put the brakes on launches due to lack of traffic and buyers,” said Garde MacDonald, Director of Advisory for MLA Canada.

“Despite this, the seven projects that launched in November saw reasonable success in context of a slow 2024. Based on our active projects, absorptions in the presale space are steadily improving but numerous hurdles remain for any project coming to market in the next number of months.”

However, the market may have recently turned a corner based on the latest monthly overall home sales performance trends as a direct result of the Bank of Canada’s now abundantly clear position of bringing down its policy interest rate. This will not only improve homebuyer demand but also lower the construction financing costs for developers for the cost of construction materials, labour, and equipment, as well as land acquisition.

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