Saretsky thinks this is inevitable.<\/p>\n
Project cancellations are becoming a daily event in Greater Vancouver. https:\/\/t.co\/UlUXyGv34A<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Steve Saretsky (@SteveSaretsky) March 12, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of time and energy and effort that it takes to become a housing start,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom land acquisition to rezoning to permitting and then to construction. You can\u2019t just turn the dial and say, \u2018Oh, I want housing to complete,\u2019 or \u2018I want a housing start.\u2019 It\u2019s a very long, drawn-out process, because what we build predominantly today is usually low-rise, mid-rise, high-rise condos, and even townhouses. And those take anywhere from two years to seven years to build. It\u2019s not as simple as just turning on the taps.\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s going on in the market?<\/p>\n Saretsky said low presales are a result of an \u201cincredibly weak\u201d real estate market that hit a\u00a025-year low<\/a> last year, with struggles continuing into 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n He said that federal cuts to immigration have pushed B.C. rents down, deterring investors from entering the market.<\/p>\n Tighter federal policies have affected international students, post-grad work permits, family open work permits, and temporary foreign workers \u2014 all people who tend to rent.<\/p>\n According to a report from liv.rent<\/a>, a rental platform, Metro Vancouver started \u201cexperiencing steeper downward pressure on rents in August [2025], coinciding with a 50 per cent increase in emigration from B.C. in Q3 compared to Q2.\u201d<\/p>\n Further, Saretsky added that new homes compete with the resale market, and \u201cthere\u2019s just too much inventory.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe reality is new home prices just aren\u2019t that competitive, because it\u2019s very expensive to build new. And you have resale prices that are dropping, you know, call it five to 10 per cent a year right now. How do you compete with that?\u201d<\/p>\n This large amount of inventory has resulted in a buyer\u2019s market,<\/a> when the number of people looking to purchase is greater than the homes for sale,\u00a0meaning buyers have more time to shop around and negotiate prices. But an uncertain economy has made people hesitant to buy in recent years.<\/p>\n Brendon Ogmundson, the chief economist of the BCREA, said they had initially expected 2025 to be a \u201cmuch different year.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then the uncertainty hit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs and threat of tariffs made potential buyers hesitant<\/a>, and Canada experienced record-high levels of economic uncertainty \u2014\u00a0exponentially higher than the 2008\/2009 financial crisis and the 2020 pandemic.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Koshiro K\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n In 2025, Ogmundson said many developers thought they\u2019d be able to get their projects financed through presales, but that \u201cjust hasn\u2019t happened because the investors just aren\u2019t there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the investors aren\u2019t there because the returns aren\u2019t there. Rents are falling. Price appreciation is zero, if not slightly negative, when prices come down a bit in some markets. So just a really, really difficult market to find investors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n While the economic impact from tariffs hasn\u2019t been as bad as feared, Ogmundson said it left a mark. A Bank of Canada survey on consumer expectations<\/a>\u00a0from the fourth quarter of 2025 found that people still had concerns \u201cover high prices and economic uncertainty related to the trade conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the war in the Middle East and the resulting oil crisis \u201cdoesn\u2019t help the certainty.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s still a ton of anxiety in the economy about job loss. And if you\u2019re worried about losing your job, that you\u2019re certainly not going to buy a presale condo or even look to get into the housing market at all,\u201d said Ogmundson.<\/p>\n Are government policies at fault?<\/p>\n Jonathan Meads, the vice president of StreetSide Developments, said developers are hit by unhelpful government policy and fees.<\/p>\n He said the federal government\u2019s foreign buyer ban, which prohibits foreign commercial enterprises and people from purchasing properties in Canada,<\/a> is responsible for some of the slide in sales.<\/p>\n The foreign buyer ban came into effect at the beginning of 2023<\/a>, with the goal of ensuring homes are owned by Canadians, not foreign investors.<\/p>\n \u201cIt comes off wrong,\u201d Meads admitted. But he said there are not enough local buyers in the market to hit the banks\u2019 60 per cent presale requirement to finance a housing project.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the foreign buyers \u2014 that capital is certainly one of the elements that allows us to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n He isn\u2019t alone in thinking this. Last year, a coalition of B.C. real estate developers, industry representatives, and construction leaders sent an open letter<\/a> to both the provincial and federal governments, asking the government to reform this ban, as well as B.C.\u2019s tax on non-resident buyers. They said that the policies had the unintended consequences of slowing housing starts.<\/p>\n Meads is also frustrated by the hefty fees that developers have to pay municipal and regional governments in order to build in the first place.<\/p>\n For example, municipalities charge what\u2019s called development cost charges (DCCs)<\/a>, a one-time fee that they then use to fund the infrastructure\u00a0needed to accommodate the population that their new building will bring.<\/p>\n But Meads thinks that this system \u201cforces\u201d first-time homebuyers to \u201cpay for everybody else\u2019s improvements in those fees that are applied to the door.\u201d<\/p>\n In the late 2010s, he said he saw a \u201crapid acceleration in those charges,\u201d when municipalities started viewing DCCs as a way to raise revenue.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re buying a million-dollar home today, 300,000 of that is going back to different levels of government, in fees, levies, taxes, costs, charges, etc. And I don\u2019t think people understand that if we could find a way to reduce that, developers would reduce that price as well.\u201d<\/p>\n When the market is good, developers \u201cget on and just accept it, because we want to get the homes built,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cObviously, in today\u2019s market, there\u2019s a much greater sensitivity to that.\u201d<\/p>\n Last month, the federal and Ontario governments announced an $8.8 billion fund to support lowering DCCs by up to 50 per cent in Ontario<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cDevelopment charges are a major upfront cost that can delay or prevent new housing projects. Lowering these upfront costs will help accelerate construction and build more homes,\u201d reads a press release on the announcement.<\/p>\n Housing starts are still high, for now<\/p>\n Even though project cancellations are happening, housing starts are \u201cstill at a pretty high level,\u201d according to Ogmundson with the BCREA.<\/p>\n![\"b.c.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/bc-real-estate-firm-legal-fight.jpg\"\/ "\\"\\"")
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