{"id":157762,"date":"2026-08-06T08:51:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T08:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/157762\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T08:51:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T08:51:26","slug":"a-cooling-trend-is-impacting-vancouver-islands-real-estate-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/157762\/","title":{"rendered":"A cooling trend is impacting Vancouver Island&#8217;s real estate market"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you are looking to buy a house in Greater Victoria there are thousands of options, and if you are selling, the advice from the experts is that move-in-ready properties are hot. Otherwise, properties may be on the market for months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Realtor Stephen Foster listed a fixer-upper property in the core of Victoria more than 70 days ago for just over a million dollars, and has had few inquiries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s an older beautiful house but it does require some work. We\u2019ve been looking for a buyer who is looking for a challenge,\u201d Foster said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He says buyers right now are focused on the right house, for the right price. It\u2019s a different picture from just a few years ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn 2022, this would have been out the door and gone in a minute. Just because it\u2019s a great location, walkable to so many amenities nearby, lots of light, it\u2019s a solid home. They\u2019ve updated all the utilities on the properties,\u201d Foster said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Watch the story below:<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sales are happening, but buyers are increasingly choosey, according to Fergus Kyne, chair of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vreb.org\/current-statistics\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.vreb.org\/current-statistics\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Greater Victoria Real Estate Board<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cRight now what we are seeing in our market is even the reasonable price is being tested and things that are exciting, that is what is selling. So for homeowners, if you are thinking \u2018where is my buyer?\u2019 Take a look around at what you are selling. It has to look amazing and be in fantastic condition,\u201d Kyne said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The slowdown is reflected in the numbers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The price of a single family home in Greater Victoria dropped 2.8 per cent in July 2026 compared with July 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Condo prices are down 2.2 per cent this year compared with 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the price of townhouses is up slightly, by 0.8 per cent, from an average of $789,300 in July 2025 to $795,500 in July 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What it translates into is cautious buyers who are taking their time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBuyers are definitely in a bit of the drivers seat just because there are more listings than there have been historically. We\u2019re down a little bit from last month, which was a high of 11 years of 4,000 listings. But now we\u2019re down and about five per cent off that,\u201d Foster said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAll those little things that you thought maybe didn\u2019t need to be taken care of before you sold a couple of years ago, now definitely make the difference between people just passing it by, and making an offer,\u201d Kyne said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And both agree, if it\u2019s move-in ready it\u2019s likely to sell to the right buyer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/cheknews.ca\/greater-victoria-housing-inventory-at-11-year-high-1331789\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"heknews.ca\/greater-victoria-housing-inventory-at-11-year-high-1331789\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Greater Victoria housing inventory at 11-year high<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you are looking to buy a house in Greater Victoria there are thousands of options, and if&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[95,784],"class_list":["post-157762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-vancouver","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}