Tag Archives: salt spring island

October 2025, Market Update

October Market Update: Harvest Season & Real Estate Insights

Gulf Islands autumn landscape

October welcomes the fulfillment of the Harvest Season. Mid-month is the Canadian Thanksgiving Weekend celebration. The countdown to the shortest day of the year is underway. Star-watching opportunities inspire.

The elements that allure one to Salt Spring and the Gulf Islands are clearly understood: forest, sea, mountains, the play of light, the preservation of the environmental beauties of this narrow ribbon of the Pacific Northwest Coast…an invitation to enjoy calm and beauty.

September & Early October: The Dynamic Harvest Season

September and early October are mirrors of this dynamic Harvest Season…they melt together. September saw the Labour Day holiday weekend, the continuing Saturday Market and Tuesday Farmers Market, the wine and cider tastings, the olive grove, the farmgate stands displaying their largesse, the Fall Fair.

Salt Spring Island harvest activities

“Hands Across the Water” connected Orcas Island with Salt Spring Island…a flotilla of boats reminded the two countries of similarities in island lives. The SSNAP (Salt Spring National Art Prize) event opened September 27 and runs to October 19. The annual beloved Apple Fest was celebrated on the 28th. September ended with the Truth and Reconciliation commemoration (an annual statutory holiday on September 30).

October continues the emphasis on artistic presentations, and on Harvest enjoyment. The poet John Keats called October the “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”.

Real Estate Market Update

Market Activity

Random sales with lengthy pause periods since 2021

Inventory

Low throughout 2022 to now, slight increase for buyers

Pricing

Relatively stable despite pause periods

Since the outburst of sales action in 2021 (post-covid closures), there have been random sales and many lengthy pause periods. Inventory remained low throughout 2022 to now. At the moment, it looks somewhat promising for buyers…a few more listings to consider. Scarcity of product still remains an issue…those very few additional listings will sell and there are no other options like them to fill in. This points to sellers being favoured again. There is no definitive trend to point to.

The Buyer’s Journey

There are no local buyers on the Gulf Islands. The process unfolds in four deliberate steps:

  1. 1.
    Hear about the area and available listings
  2. 2.
    Visit the chosen island and assess fit
  3. 3.
    Revisit and explore properties in preferred range
  4. 4.
    Make an offer
Gulf Islands property viewing

Patience is always a part of every real estate transaction in a recreational/secondary home region. Some reasons for a buyer to choose a Gulf Island might be about seeking safe haven lifestyles. This might also be about currency concerns…wanting a real estate investment to preserve capital.

Important to remember that a primary residence/city marketplace is different from a secondary home/recreational option. Although slower in achieving a sale, Salt Spring and the Gulf Islands remain important investment opportunities. Along with continuing low inventory, prices have remained relatively stable, in spite of long pause periods between action.

Salt Spring Island lifestyle

Why Gulf Islands?


  • Ability to be self-sufficient

  • Privacy without isolation

  • Islands Trust preservation governance model

Looking Ahead: Change & Opportunity

Change has been a serious description of 2025. In spite of these very significant shifts that have played out to date, and more yet to come, the desire to own real estate remains a goal for many.

About that change: looking into winter’s slower pace, it’s time to take the time to understand what AI really means. Ready, set, go!

This might be a change that is like the impact of the printing press in the 14th Century. Your thoughts? Always welcome!

Gulf Islands seasonal transition

More info? Contact me.

July 3, 2025 Market Update – Greater Vancouver REALTORS®


From Greater Vancouver REALTORS®

July 3, 2025 Market Update

Home Sale Trend Stabilizing in June

by: Greater Vancouver REALTORS® (GVR)

After a turbulent first half of the year, home sales registered on the MLS® across Metro Vancouver are showing emerging signs of a recovery, down ten per cent year-over-year – halving the decline seen last month.

The Greater Vancouver REALTORS® (GVR) reports that residential sales in the region totalled 2,181 in June 2025, a 9.8 per cent decrease from the 2,418 sales recorded in June 2024. This was 25.8 per cent below the 10-year seasonal average (2,940).

“On a trended basis, signs are emerging that sales activity is rounding the corner after a challenging first half to the year, with the year-over-year decline in sales in June halving the decline we saw in May,” said Andrew Lis, GVR’s director of economics and data analytics. “If this momentum continues, it may not be long before sales are up year-over-year, which would mark a shift toward a market with more demand than the unusually low demand we’ve seen so far this year.”

Inventory Levels Surge

There were 6,315 detached, attached and apartment properties newly listed for sale on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in Metro Vancouver in June 2025. This represents a 10.3 per cent increase compared to the 5,723 properties listed in June 2024. This was 12.7 per cent above the 10-year seasonal average (5,604).

The total number of properties currently listed for sale on the MLS® system in Metro Vancouver is 17,561, a 23.8 per cent increase compared to June 2024 (14,182). This is 43.7 per cent above the 10-year seasonal average (12,223).

Sales-to-Active Listings Ratios by Property Type:

  • Overall Market
    12.8%
  • Detached Homes
    9.9%
  • Attached Homes
    16.9%
  • Apartments
    13.9%

Market Dynamics & Price Pressure

Analysis of the historical data suggests downward pressure on home prices occurs when the ratio dips below 12 per cent for a sustained period, while home prices often experience upward pressure when it surpasses 20 per cent over several months.

“As home sales regain their footing, inventory levels aren’t building as quickly as we’ve seen lately,” Lis said. “Most market segments remain in balanced market conditions, which has generally kept prices trending sideways since the start of the year. With over 17,000 listings on the market right now, and with mortgage rates down around two per cent since last summer, buyers are enjoying some of the most favorable conditions seen in years.”

Benchmark Pricing Overview

The MLS® Home Price Index composite benchmark price for all residential properties in Metro Vancouver is currently $1,173,100. This represents a 2.8 per cent decrease over June 2024 and a 0.3 per cent decrease compared to May 2025.

Property Performance Summary

Detached Homes

$1,994,500

  • • 657 sales (-5.3% YoY)
  • • -3.2% vs June 2024
  • • -0.1% vs May 2025

Apartment Homes

$748,400

  • • 1,040 sales (-16.5% YoY)
  • • -3.2% vs June 2024
  • • -1.2% vs May 2025

Attached Homes

$1,103,900

  • • 473 sales (+3.7% YoY)
  • • -3.0% vs June 2024
  • • -0.3% vs May 2025

July 1, 2025 – Salt Spring Island Market Analysis


July, 2025

Summer-Summer is Really Here

Salt Spring Island scenic view

Summer-summer is really here…July 1st is Canada Day, the birthday celebration of the country’s beginning days. Although with less razzle-dazzle than the U.S. version on July 4th, both these dates unite the very different provinces and states that make up the two neighbouring countries.

On the Gulf Islands, they melt together and boaters love the protected waters between the Canadian Southern Gulf Islands and the U.S. San Juan Islands. Summer is a short season…catch all the amazing array offered right now and remember to enjoy it all.

Gulf Islands waters

The Ever Interesting Real Estate Market

What about that ever interesting thing called the real estate market? No matter the season, it’s always expressing buying and selling. Like all markets, it’s never static…up or down or in that mid-moment when it’s traveling in either direction. All markets are restless and they are dependent on buyer action.

Salt Spring Island landscape

The covid closures in early 2020 could be the reason for the erasing of inventory and the resulting price escalation in rural areas. Although 2022 to 2024 continued the lack of inventory and the relative stability of prices, buyers were pausing in action. A tiny flurry of activity between October 2024 and January 2025 promised a steadier market in many forecasts.

Between February and May, disruptive issues came to the fore, and market conditions were uncertain. Another buyer pause developed. As we enter July, the tone of 2025 will become evident.

Salt Spring Island property view

A Powerful Societal Shift

What is happening? We are in a powerful societal shift. Millennial and GenZ voices are in the ascendant. It’s essential to understand social media as marketing platforms. Seamless interaction with AI is important. Those are just surface shifts. A decade from now, 2020 will seem like ancient history.

In a societal shift time, anyone can be thoughtful and can invent the new solutions. So there you are, in a ferry line-up, the hills rising up from Fulford Harbour, and you have the opportunity to invent a solution and get the message out on many platforms…thank you Steve Jobs. So, what do you do? Go for it!

Sunny July Awaits

Meantime it’s sunny July: Saturday Market, Tuesday Farmers Market, farmgate stands, award winning restaurants, patio dining with a view, wine tastings, cideries, Salt Spring Olive Oil, picnics at Ruckle Park, Drummond Park, Fernwood, Vesuvius.

Sunsets, star-watching. Hiking trails, ocean and lake swimming. Spa retreats, specialty shopping with local opportunity, studio tour…lots to see and enjoy and lots of time to lazily swing in a hammock, a fat book in your lap, and to just “be”.

It’s July. Enjoy!

June 3, Salt Spring Island – Market Update


June 3, 2025 Market Update

Buyers Remain Hesitant as Inventory Builds

May saw inventory levels across Metro Vancouver reach another ten-year high, while home sales registered on the MLS® remained muted.

The Greater Vancouver REALTORS® (GVR) reports that residential sales in the region totalled 2,228 in May 2025, an 18.5 per cent decrease from the 2,733 sales recorded in May 2024. This was 30.5 per cent below the 10-year seasonal average (3,206).

“While there are emerging signs that sales activity might be turning a corner, sales in May were below the ten-year seasonal average, which suggests that some buyers are still sitting on the sidelines or are being especially selective,” said Andrew Lis, GVR’s director of economics and data analytics. “On a year-to-date basis, sales in 2025 rank among the slowest to start the year in the past decade, closely mirroring the trends seen in 2019 and 2020. It’s worth noting that sales rebounded significantly in the latter half of 2020, but whether sales in 2025 might follow a similar pattern remains the million-dollar question.”

Inventory Levels Surge

There were 6,620 detached, attached and apartment properties newly listed for sale on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in Metro Vancouver in May 2025. This represents a 3.9 per cent increase compared to the 6,374 properties listed in May 2024. This was 9.3 per cent above the 10-year seasonal average (6,055).

The total number of properties currently listed for sale on the MLS® system in Metro Vancouver is 17,094, a 25.7 per cent increase compared to May 2024 (13,600). This is 45.9 per cent above the 10-year seasonal average (11,718).

Sales-to-Active Listings Ratios by Property Type:

  • Overall Market
    13.4%
  • Detached Homes
    10.2%
  • Attached Homes
    17.4%
  • Apartments
    14.7%

Market Dynamics & Price Pressure

Analysis of the historical data suggests downward pressure on home prices occurs when the ratio dips below 12 per cent for a sustained period, while home prices often experience upward pressure when it surpasses 20 per cent over several months.

“With some of the healthiest levels of inventory seen in years, many sellers are adjusting price expectations, which has provided buyers more negotiating room and kept a firm lid on price escalation over the past few months,” Lis said. “From a seasonal perspective, sales in the summer months are typically quieter than the spring, but with such an unusually slow spring, we may have an unusually busy summer with so many having delayed their purchasing decisions. Either way, the market continues tilting in favour of buyers, which bodes well for anyone looking to make a purchase this summer.”

Benchmark Pricing Overview

The MLS® Home Price Index composite benchmark price for all residential properties in Metro Vancouver is currently $1,177,100. This represents a 2.9 per cent decrease over May 2024 and a 0.6 per cent decrease compared to April 2025.

Property Performance Summary

Detached Homes

$1,997,400

  • • 654 sales (-22.7% YoY)
  • • -3.2% vs May 2024
  • • -1.2% vs April 2025

Apartment Homes

$757,300

  • • 1,087 sales (-18.8% YoY)
  • • -2.4% vs May 2024
  • • -0.7% vs April 2025

Attached Homes

$1,106,800

  • • 469 sales (-10.3% YoY)
  • • -3.4% vs May 2024
  • • +0.4% vs April 2025

March 21, 2025 – from Victoria Times Colonist Editorial Column


The Victoria Times Colonist newspaper is on sale throughout Vancouver Island. There is an online version. Today’s editorial sums up the issue with the provincial government’s Bill 7. See below:

March 21, 2025


Government’s Bill 7 is a disgraceful overreach

Editorial

If there were any doubt that ­Premier David Eby lacks respect for the ­provincial legislature, he has removed it.

His government has tabled legislation — Bill 7, the Economic Stabilization (Tariff Response) Act — that provides far-reaching emergency powers to
bypass the legislature.

The purpose of the statute, supposedly, is to address challenges arising out of Donald Trump’s tariff war.

But Bill 7, as drafted, basically gives Eby the power to do as he pleases, across almost the entire field of public policy, without any oversight or accountability.

For the next two years, the premier and his colleagues can change, rewrite or set aside any law or regulation behind closed doors.

Eby justifies this by asserting the need to act quickly, and he insisted that any actions he takes must be ratified by the legislature.

The latter statement is untrue. All the premier has promised is that he will inform the legislature, after the event, of what he has already done.

The longstanding principle, upon which parliamentary government rests, is advise and consent. That is to say, the government must advise the legislature of its intended actions, and the legislature must give its consent.

This legislation, if it passes unchanged, does away with that principle. There need be no consent.

To get a sense of how parliamentary due process is being overridden, a read of the act is illuminating.

  • First, the regulatory powers given to the premier and cabinet apply to “any laws of British Columbia respecting who may sell, purchase or use a good…(or ) a service that may be supplied in another province of Canada.” So an entire body of law, covering numerous statutes and a wide range of economic activity, is thus set aside.
  • Second, this power to regulate applies “despite any enactment or regulatory measure that applies to the supply of a service.” Does this nullify regulations designed to protect employees, create workplace safety, guarantee consumers fair treatment, and so on? It certainly appears to.
  • Third, the Financial Administration Act, which defines the appropriate management of public funds, is explicitly superseded. Here, as with his massive budget deficits, we see Eby’s disregard for fiscal probity.
  • Fourth, “No legal proceeding for damages lies or may be commenced or maintained against a protected person because of anything done or omitted in complying with … a directive issued under this (authority).”

So not only are the principles of sound financial management disregarded, but the government’s agents, including –presumably the premier and cabinet, are safeguarded against legal proceedings.

Not satisfied with gagging the legislature, Eby is gagging the courts.

Lastly, directives issued under this Act as late as June 30 can be made retroactive to Feb. 1.

This is the ultimate end run of the legislature, which wasn’t even sitting on Feb. 1.

The two Green Party MLAs have asked that the statute be amended, pointing out the many concerns it raises.

And the provincial Conservatives have assailed the bill, claiming it makes the premier a dictator or a king.

Yet regardless of whatever complaints they raise, or arguments they make, the opposition parties are effectively impotent. If the premier holds firm, they can’t force a change.

The NDP have 47 MLAs, the Conservatives 41, and the Greens two, with three former Conservatives who are sitting as independents.

One of the NDP members sits as Speaker, so in daily sittings the NDP are tied with the opposition. However in a tie vote, the Speaker can cast the winning vote.

This statute is as disingenuous as it is an offence against longstanding parliamentary due process.

The premier must accept this and back away.

Stay Tuned!!!

March 2025 – Market Analysis – Salt Spring Island

March 2025 – Market Analysis – Salt Spring Island

Wow…it’s meteorological Spring today, the first of March. This begins the seasonality that is treasured on the great Pacific Northwest Coast: early Spring, Spring, Summer, early Fall. March Break (mid-March) to Canadian Thanksgiving (mid-October) are key seasons for Salt Spring and the Gulf Islands.

Real Estate Market Trends

The islands real estate market continues to follow the trends of the past two plus years: lack of inventory and relatively stable pricing. The main buyer profile has continued to be a Vancouver/Lower Mainland purchaser.

The reasons for seeking a Gulf Islands/Salt Spring Island property are two-fold: one, a desire to leave urban for rural (to be self-sufficient). There also continues to be an interest in preservation of capital through a real estate purchase in a unique area…emphasizing a currency concern.

There is not a lot of choice for a buyer. Most owners are not wanting to be sellers. There is always opportunity, though, and some buyers may need to consider shared ownership models as a way into a market that rarely sees first time buyers.

Islands Trust

The outcome of the Islands Trust governance model (put in place in 1974, by the provincial government) was to cap growth through strict zoning/bylaws restrictions. It’s important for buyers to read about the Islands Trust online…to pay attention to those bylaws/zoning restrictions…and to also look at the Official Community Plan and to Development Permit Area restrictions. These can supersede the original bylaws. It’s important to understand the community “rules” before buying.

Current Listings

At the moment, there are approximately 95 listings (all property types…residential, land, commercial) on the MLS system. In a more balanced market, there would be around 380 listings. Lack of inventory remains the issue, and can lead to buyer hesitations.

2024 saw the beginning of many societal changes and 2025 appears to be continuing these shifts. It can be both alarming and energizing, when one encounters serious changes. We don’t get to choose our “time”, though…just our reaction to it.

The current referencing to potential U.S. reciprocal tariffs has reminded Canadians of their inability to trade between provinces. This is something that needs to be done. The lack of this has nothing to do with outside tariffs. It makes no sense to keep provinces isolated from each other, economically.

In B.C., business groups have recently come up with a plan to support economic pro-growth options. They point out that both provincially and federally there have been no-growth policies for at least a decade and that has nothing to do with outside tariffs either. Hmmmm……

The flexing of U.S. policies that emphasize that country’s outcomes could also benefit Canada’s rethink about our own dynamics. So many talented Canadians may have moved south in past years, as Canada did not offer the same opportunities. What were our governments doing?

The concern over the impact of proposed reciprocal tariffs, from our biggest trading partner, has brought forward many different “forecasts” about the economy, going forward. Real estate is one of the pillars of economic health in Canada, and the spectrum of current forecasts ranges from “we will continue to see slow growth” to “we will see a correction/downturn”. Many scenarios talk about a softening of sales and lowering of prices, with an improving trend in 2028.

These are the same people who were insisting that the covid shutdowns of early 2020 would cause a crash and then we ended late 2020/into 2021 with “over ask” bidding wars and an erasing of inventory…plus dramatic price increases.

Our lower dollar is attracting interested U.S. buyers…although the federal government ban on foreign buyers (brought in on January 1, 2023 and put in place until January 1, 2025…then extended till January 1, 2027) may be in place, there are many exemptions and it doesn’t apply to land or to commercial options. (The ban was brought in to help solve the lack of housing dilemma).

Lots to be concerned about…this month we will find out who will replace Trudeau and also whether there will be an early federal election. We will hear the budget from the provincial government and learn about their plan to create economic strength for B.C. The question of tariffs will be answered. And so forth and so on….. It is difficult to point to a trend at this exact moment. It may take until late April or mid-May to understand the tone of the 2025 market.

Meantime: it’s a good plan to take advantage of this seasonal awakening, to enjoy the beauties of the natural world that are erupting all around us, to remember to get out and about (beachcombing, hiking, picnics, tastings, al fresco dining, farmers markets, kayaking, art gallery openings, spa retreats, sailing adventures, theatre discoveries, and day trips to companion islands….in other words, to remember to live…and to simply and calmly breathe).

Opportunity always exists…we just need to be looking. And your thoughts are? Always welcome!