Vancouver Real Estate Rundown: Mar 30

Some inside baseball on one of my stories.

At the two-day Vancouver Real Estate Forum last week, one of the panels I attended was a discussion between developers on the ongoing project viability challenges. You’ve likely heard it all before, but my takeaway was there is concern about housing supply down the road resulting from projects not moving forward today.

Check out my summary of the panel below for RENX (which also includes a brief summary of the Cowichan Tribes panel) and keep an eye out for two more stories by me for RENX from the Vancouver Real Estate Forum about the investment landscape and office market in Vancouver.

The big headlines.

• The Urban Development Institute and a handful of other housing, construction, and business organizations have called on the Province to negotiate a GST rebate on new housing in BC and secure development charge reductions similar to Ontario, which announced an $8.8 billion agreement with the Government of Canada last week on those two things. At the Vancouver Real Estate Forum last week, multiple speakers alluded to an agreement for BC as currently being “under negotiation.”

• The Province announced legislative amendments that will “establish new eligible project categories that local governments and TransLink could choose to apply to reduce development cost charges.”

• The BC Non-Profit Housing Association, Co-Operative Housing Federation of BC, Aboriginal Housing Management Association, and TL Housing Solutions (Townline) also called on the Province to walk back Budget 2026’s cancellation of the Community Housing Fund, which has stranded several projects.

• Vancouver City Council defeated the motion introduced by Councillor Rebecca Bligh, resulting in a continued pause on supportive housing.

• Homes sales in March were down 2.8% in both Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley year over year, according to the latest real estate board statistics.

• Metro Vancouver published a new 10-year plan for the Metro Vancouver Housing Corporation, setting a goal of investing $150 million towards expanding its portfolio by 2,000 units, as I wrote for Storeys. The MVHC portfolio is currently valued at $923 million.

• The Montrose Wintergarden Hotel project in Victoria by Merchant House Capital has been placed under receivership, as I reported for Western Investor, the developer’s third insolvency after the Victoria Press Building and Kinnaird Place.

• Nicola Wealth has gated Nicola Value Add Real Estate LP and intends to wind down the $755 million fund, which took a 25.5% loss in 2025.

Time is a flat circle.

• The City of Vancouver has submitted a rezoning application for 3475 E Hastings Street, where they have proposed an 19-storey social housing project.

• The Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh Nations, and Aquilini Development have received rezoning approval for their Heather Lands project in Vancouver.

• TL Housing Solutions and Community Land Trust have completed 177 West Pender Street, a 76-unit affordable housing project in the Downtown Eastside named Tung Sam Lau that will be operated by Atira.

• The BC Indigenous Housing Society has completed and opened the Chief Leonard George Building, an 81-unit tall timber passive housing rental building in Vancouver.

• Westbank and Peterson have secured a $31 million bridge loan from Peakhill Capital to refinance the office and retail component of the Woodward’s Building.

Everything is available for the right price.

• David Taylor and Charlie Hughes of Colliers have listed 1149-1155 Lynn Valley Road, a development site in the District of North Vancouver that has received DP approval for a six-storey woodframe rental building with 66 units.

• David Venance, Patrick Hannah, Chris Harper, and Alexander Priatel of Cushman & Wakefield have listed Louisa Court, a 17-unit rental building located at 1360 Burnaby Street in Vancouver.

• On behalf of Beedie, Chris Brewster and Todd Bohn of Colliers have listed 26370 29th Avenue in Langley, a 6.45-acre industrial development site being offered for sale or as a built-to-suit opportunity. The asking price is $28 million.

• Carey Buntain, Chris Wieser, Kevin Murray, and Megan Low of Avison Young have listed the Highland Place Apartments, a 56-unit rental building located at 2600 Highland Boulevard in Nanaimo, for $14 million.

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.

• The 304-key Hotel Grand Pacific in Victoria has been sold to InnVest Hotels. Multiple industry sources told The Realist that the price was between $150 million and $160 million and closer to the latter end.

• Blake Gozda, Sean Ungenmach, Nathan Kewin, and Jeevan Bath of Cushman & Wakefield have leased 502 Twentieth Street in New Westminster, where BC Housing is planning a 30-unit tiny homes temporary housing project.

• Ely Golvin and Gurjivan Athwal of Cushman & Wakefield have a firm deal for 16150 88 Avenue, a 2.5-acre townhouse development site in Surrey.

• Gord Robson and Ilya Tihanenoks of Avison Young have sold 20528 and 20580 Lougheed Highway, a 1.19-acre retail property in Maple Ridge.

• David Venance, Patrick Hannah, Chris Haper, Cordell Lloyd, and Alexander Priatel of Cushman & Wakefield have sold Somerset Place, a 46-unit rental building located at 1180 Fort Street in Victoria.

Those who make real estate real.

• After 23 years, Jamie Squires is leaving Fifth Avenue Real Estate Marketing as President & Managing Broker and moved her license to RE/MAX Treeland Realty.

• Raman Bayanzadeh has been officially installed as Chair of Greater Vancouver Realtors for the 2026-2027 term.

• GiGi Chan has joined Conwest Developments as Senior Director of Accounting & Finance.

• Devon Leggitt has joined Fitzrovia as General Manager of Sen̓áḵw.

• Simran Mander has been promoted to Senior Commercial Property Manager at Onni Group.

• Alex Shaw has been promoted to Principal, Real Estate at AIMCo.

• Heather Costantini has joined Walmart Canada as Senior Manager of Real Estate.

When a door closes, a window opens.

Where, when, and what things are happening this week.

• There are no regular council meetings this week in Vancouver, Surrey, Burnaby, and Coquitlam.

Some additional reading you might be interested in.