Amanda Stinson • Royal LePage Nanaimo Realty Gabriola

05/12/2026

If you're thinking about a move to Gabriola Island, the hardest part is timing. Good properties here sell fast — often within days. I've set up a listing alert so you hear about new properties first, straight to your email.

https://gabriolarealty.ca/listing-alerts

04/28/2026

It’s easy to fall in love with Gabriola and day dream about building a home. Before you fall in love with a listing, do your homework • here are some important things I wish all buyers knew ahead of time.

Thinking about acreage on Gabriola Island? A local REALTOR® explains ALR designation, Islands Trust zoning, wells, septic, and what to check before you buy.

04/17/2026

👀 I spent ten years dreaming of this island before I let myself move here.

New essay - link below. ⬇️

Five years before I moved to Gabriola Island, I already knew. This is the essay about the long, slow years between knowing and doing — and how writing helped me

04/08/2026

For the Victoria woman who has built a good life — and has started, quietly, to wonder what comes next.

New essay on the blog. Moving from Victoria to Gabriola Island: What to Expect.

One ferry ride from Nanaimo. A different life on the other side.

https://gabriolarealty.ca/posts/moving-from-victoria-to-gabriola-island

04/05/2026

I still have a folder on my phone of places I want to live in Europe.

I also have a garden I built from scratch, two Pomeranians who have never been happier, and a painting studio of my own.

I’m 45. I made the move. It wasn’t to Europe.

A personal essay about leaving the city, building a garden from scratch, returning to painting, and finding the life you've been dreaming about — on Gabriola.

04/02/2026

Spring on Gabriola is doing what it does — arbutus bark glowing, gardens waking up, and the market quietly beginning to move.

If you're watching from Vancouver or Victoria, this is the season worth paying attention to. Established gardens reveal themselves honestly in spring. Water and well questions have answers you can actually observe. And the buyers who move purposefully are the ones who tend to be ready when the right property appears.

New on the blog: what you need to know about the Gabriola spring market in 2026 — including why now is genuinely the best time to view garden properties, and what urban buyers often miss about water supply on the island.

03/10/2026

A sea lion watching from the water. Kuma wading the shoreline at Drumbeg Park on Gabriola Island. The sound of early March on the BC coast.

Just this.

03/09/2026

Thinking about the Gulf Islands but not sure whether Gabriola or Salt Spring is the right fit?

I've lived on both. Two months on Salt Spring, and now several years calling Gabriola home. They're both genuinely beautiful — but they're not the same, and for a buyer making a real relocation decision, the differences matter.

The one that surprises people most: as of early 2026, the MLS benchmark price on Gabriola sits at $684,100 compared to $861,600 on Salt Spring. That's roughly $177,000 less for a comparable property — which on a real budget translates directly into what you can actually afford.

I've written an honest comparison covering the ferry situation, the pace of each island, the arts communities, and what daily life really looks like on both sides. Worth a read if you're serious about making this move.

Thinking about Gulf Islands living but weighing your options? Amanda Stinson has lived on both islands and shares an honest comparison to help you decide.

03/04/2026

Tour day on Gabriola. A book swap find, Kuma leading the way to Malaspina, and then — that water. That colour. 😍
The Paris Wife is coming home with me.

02/26/2026

Hello from your garden-obsessed realtor and my lazy co-pilot trying to nap in the wheelbarrow.

Spring prep isn't just about tidying—it's about leaving things alone too. Dead stems shelter hibernating pollinators. Seed heads feed birds. Log piles support beetles, bees, butterflies.

Your garden isn't just yours. It's their home.

I wrote about what to do (and what to leave undisturbed) in island gardens this spring.

Read more in the link. ☺️

How to prepare your Gabriola Island garden for spring without disrupting wildlife habitats. A naturalistic approach to island gardening and ecosystem care.

02/10/2026

Found this—a Lawren Harris WWII silkscreen (one of 7,500 sent to troops overseas, most never returned). But the collection goes far beyond wartime prints. Northwest Coast art. Contemporary Canadian work. This is what makes island living so rewarding. Galleries like this. If you’re on Salt Spring, it’s worth the visit.