{"id":874673,"date":"2026-08-28T15:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T15:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/874673\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T15:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T15:02:14","slug":"wealthy-parents-are-driving-the-vancouver-real-estate-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/874673\/","title":{"rendered":"Wealthy parents are driving the Vancouver real estate market"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

In B.C., the average down payment gift is $204,000.Jennifer Gauthier\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Realtors in Metro Vancouver<\/a> say they\u2019ve had a surprisingly robust summer compared with previous summers when buyers tend to go on holiday, and nobody wants to think about selling their property.<\/p>\n

This year, they say, the market is driven by young buyers who are receiving help from their parents, both first-time buyers and those who are moving up from a condo to a townhouse or detached house. It means turnkey, family-size properties are selling faster than small homes or fixer-uppers. Buyers see opportunities in a softer market without competition from investors and builders, and in desirable properties that might have cost 10 or even 15 per cent more a few years ago. By gifting a down payment, parents help their kids qualify for mortgages<\/a> they wouldn\u2019t otherwise qualify for.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are dealing with informed purchasers right now, in broad macroeconomics, those parents whose heads aren\u2019t in the sand and recognize it\u2019s more than an avocado toast issue. Those folks are aware and calling,\u201d said Royal LePage Wolstencroft broker and co-owner David Smith, a former pastor who immigrated from Scotland.<\/p>\n

Mr. Smith, who specializes in the Fraser Valley, is a millennial father who can relate to young buyers and their parents. He said they\u2019re increasingly hearing from parents who want to help their kids either get into the market or upsize. He sees parents not just helping with the first home, but with the next home, and the home after that.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an immigrant to the country, I know what that effort looks like. I\u2019ve worked 80-, 90-, 100-hour weeks,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is a mountain to climb here, and not everybody is going to be able to do so.<\/p>\n

The new-build housing glut: It\u2019s not just condos<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cParents, they\u2019ve seen a substantial pullback, particularly when it comes to entry-level condos,\u201d he said. \u201cSo they\u2019re like, \u2018Okay, well, this smells like opportunity. And not just opportunity financially, but from a lifestyle standpoint, to help balance things out a bit for my kids.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s now part of our onboarding process. Before we even sit down with someone for a consultation, one question we ask them is, \u2018Is there anybody else participating in the purchase?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The transfer of intergenerational wealth is not new, especially in the pricey B.C. market. CIBC economists Benjamin Tal and Katherine Judge released a report two years ago on parents helping their kids by gifting down payments, an update from a 2021 report. They found that, postpandemic, around one third of first-time buyers relied on parental help, and an increasing number were relying on parents to help them upsize from a small home to a bigger one.<\/p>\n

In B.C., the average down payment gift was $204,000, which represented a 90-per-cent spike since 2019. Upsizers in B.C. averaged around $230,000 in assistance. The average gifted down payment nationally is much lower, at $115,000.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Parents can help their children qualify for mortgages they wouldn\u2019t otherwise qualify for by gifting a down payment.Jennifer Gauthier\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

A major incentive is that there is no tax on gifting a down payment, and the recipient doesn\u2019t have to declare it as income. Insured mortgages are now available on homes up to $1.5-million, and the entire down payment can come from a gift. Parents are using either their own savings or tapping into their home equity through lines of credit. Lenders typically require a letter from the parents stating that they don\u2019t expect repayment.<\/p>\n

Vancouver realtor Jamie Clerkson said he\u2019s seeing parents help with monthly payments instead of a large down payment. If the monthly mortgage payment is $4,000, they might cover half of that for a couple of years, which is more manageable than a one-time outlay of several hundred thousand dollars. He\u2019s become accustomed to seeing parents at showings and home inspections, after the offer is made and before the conditions have been met. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll come look at the breaker panel, and check out the bones of the house. It\u2019s what dads like to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Newly built condos in Vancouver are too pricey to sell, CMHC data show<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe cost of Vancouver real estate is such that, even if you\u2019re making six figures in Vancouver, the barrier to entry for that 20-per-cent down payment on a house that\u2019s $1.5-million or $2-million is a big, big investment, and it takes a long time to save,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd the longer you waited to save, the prices got further away from you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Occasionally, parents who are helping financially might also want to be on title, even if it\u2019s just 1-per-cent ownership. That way, he said, the parent is notified if their son or daughter tries to borrow against the property. <\/p>\n

Some parents protect their gifts by requiring a co-habitation agreement stating that the gift remains with their adult child if they\u2019re in a common-law relationship. <\/p>\n

Mr. Smith said he\u2019s handling a sale right now in which the parents are on title 1 per cent as co-signers. But many parents would rather not have their credit tied up with their kids\u2019 credit, he said. Mostly, he sees parents gifting their kids. <\/p>\n

\u201cOften what happens is we start with the family, and they have these grand, frankly, delusional ideas about buying together. I would say we have about one a month, and they rarely work out because parents don\u2019t want to compromise on their living space. There are only so many above-ground basement suites out there that they would be willing to sell their home for. So, that\u2019s usually where it starts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The gift-giving is also creating a generational divide between those who are lucky recipients of a wealth transfer, and those who aren\u2019t. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think there is that generational resentment, and I do see it come out for sure,\u201d said Mr. Smith. \u201cI think also there\u2019s sometimes a willful blindness on the part of some of the generations that have benefited because everybody wants to believe, \u2018I did this by pulling myself up by the bootstraps.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Vancouver\u2019s real estate market adjusts to the new normal<\/a><\/p>\n

Mortgage broker Alex McFadyen said he\u2019s seen a reduction in the amount of money parents are gifting their kids, because the parents\u2019 homes are also dropping in value. <\/p>\n

\u201cI do believe that with the reduced amount of equity available in homes, we are seeing a reduction in the monster gifts that we were seeing, because the parents are not able to sell their homes like they were in 2021 and 2022, for significant amounts of money. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have stats for it, but I can tell you there is a notable difference in the amount of money these people are getting, even though they are still getting gifts.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he\u2019s also seeing young people who\u2019ve had to sell because their parents, who co-signed with them on a mortgage at the peak of the market, can no longer afford the payments. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey co-signed with their parents, and their parents helped them get in. Mortgage rates went up and the property values remained the same and they stacked on the debt and the parents can\u2019t help them, so they just have to sell and they\u2019re in debt.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mr. McFadyen said the gift-giving trend will end once the equity runs out. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat train is going to end because there\u2019s only so much equity available within the real estate market when it\u2019s locked up. The reality is, there\u2019s a lot of really wealthy people in Vancouver. But there are also a lot of people who don\u2019t have that kind of money.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: In B.C., the average down payment gift is $204,000.Jennifer Gauthier\/The Globe and Mail…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":874674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[174081,49,48,2922,968,55,174082],"class_list":["post-874673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-b-c-real-estate","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-noastack","tag-real-estate","tag-vancouver","tag-vancouver-real-estate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=874673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/874674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}