Nancy Che Vancouver Real Estate Advisor

10/09/2026

If your Burnaby home is worth more than $2M, this number should get your attention. 👀

There’s a really interesting divide happening around the $2M price point.

In Burnaby East, homes above $2M are behaving differently from homes below $2M even when you’re comparing the same type of property.

And that’s exactly why looking at the overall Burnaby market can sometimes be misleading.

🏡 Buying? Your price range matters.
💰 Selling? Your pricing strategy matters.
📊 Both? The neighbourhood-level numbers matter.

The question is: Where does your home sit?

Watch the Reel for the breakdown.

10/06/2026

Who should NOT live in Buckingham Heights? 👀

I’d probably suggest looking elsewhere if you:

🚶 Want to walk everywhere
🚗 Commute downtown every day and don’t want to drive
🍽️ Want restaurants, shops and activity right outside your door

But if you want space, privacy and a quieter residential setting in Burnaby, Buckingham Heights may be worth a closer look.

The best neighbourhood isn’t the same for everyone.

It’s the one that fits your lifestyle.

Would you live here?

10/06/2026

The foreign buyer ban expires January 1, 2027. That is five months from now, and I am getting the same question weekly, so here is the honest breakdown.

What is confirmed. The federal ban on foreign nationals buying residential property is set to expire January 1, 2027. It was extended once already and the extension runs out at the start of next year. That date is real.

What is not confirmed. What replaces it. Reporting from July says Ottawa is exploring a framework closer to Australia's, where foreign buyers could purchase new construction while resale homes stay restricted. That is reporting, not legislation. Nothing has been finalised, and anyone telling you what the rules will be in January is guessing.

And some scale, because this part gets lost. Foreign buyers made up roughly 1.1 percent of BC home sales in 2021. Prices still rose more than 20 percent between 2021 and 2026. The ban was never the main thing moving this market, and its expiry probably will not be either.

If you are trying to decide between buying this October and waiting until spring, that is a real conversation and I am happy to have it. Message me.

Sources: CIC News. Canadian Mortgage Professional, July 13 2026. BLG insight, July 2026. Not tax or legal advice.

10/02/2026

Is $2M becoming an important dividing line in Burnaby’s detached market? 👀

The numbers are showing a noticeable difference depending on which side of that price point you’re looking at.

And that matters whether you’re buying, selling, or simply trying to understand what’s happening in Burnaby real estate right now.

I break it down in this Reel.

Would you have guessed $2M was the line?

10/01/2026

Here's something that surprised a lot of people this month. 🏡

In August, more homes sold on Vancouver's West Side, fewer were listed, and they sold faster. And yet the benchmark price dropped 8.7%.

How? It depends on your price range. Detached homes between $1.5M and $3M were competitive. Homes above $4M were barely moving. Averaged together, you get one number that doesn't really describe either one.

A few other things caught my eye:
🔹 Dunbar was the only West Side area with a positive benchmark, up 1.9%
🔹 East Side detached homes took 37 days to sell, up from 27 last year
🔹 The West Side is catching up fast on days on market

If you're thinking about buying or selling, ask for the numbers for your price range in your neighbourhood, not the city headline.

I walk through all of it in my latest video.

Which surprised you more, the West Side speeding up or the East Side slowing down? 💬

Thinking about buying or selling a Vancouver home this fall? Book a...

09/29/2026

Let’s settle this one. 👇

Would you rather have:

🏡 A bigger lot and a quieter street?

OR

🚶 Walkability to shops, restaurants and everyday amenities?

That’s one of the lifestyle trade-offs to consider when looking at Buckingham Heights.

There’s no right answer, it depends on what matters most to you every day.

Which would you choose?

A️. Space + privacy
B️. Walkability

09/29/2026

Two cities come up in almost every relocation conversation I have. Seattle and Calgary.

Here is where they actually sit, per an August 5 snapshot of cost of living indices. Seattle is about 33 percent more expensive than Vancouver. Calgary is about 6 percent cheaper. Gas makes it concrete: $1.35 a litre in Calgary against $1.98 here.

So yes, Calgary is cheaper. I sell Vancouver and I am still going to tell you that, because you will find out anyway and I would rather you hear it from me first.

What I would add is that six percent on cost of living is not the number that decides a move. Housing is. Everything else is rounding, and people who move for the rounding usually move back.

The comparison worth doing is the specific one. The actual house you would buy in each city, at the actual price, with the actual commute attached, and what your life looks like on a Tuesday in each place. That gets you an answer. Index comparisons get you a talking point.

If you are weighing this right now, message me. I will give you the honest version of both sides.

Source: Expatistan city comparisons, August 5 2026 snapshot. Cost of living indices, not housing prices.

09/23/2026

Here’s something I want every home buyer to think about:

Are you buying the house or are you buying the land?

You can change the kitchen.
You can renovate the bathrooms.
You can replace the floors.
You can even rebuild.

But you can’t change the lot.

And you can’t move the street.

That’s why the land and location deserve serious attention when evaluating a home in Burnaby or anywhere in Metro Vancouver.

What would you prioritize: the house or the lot?

09/22/2026

If you are a first time buyer in BC, or you know someone who is, these two numbers are worth ten minutes of your attention.

$835,000 and $860,000.

Under the lower one, the first time buyer property transfer tax exemption is full. Above the upper one it disappears entirely. Between them it is prorated. The exemption does not taper off gently. It has a hard edge.

What that means in practice is that the last twenty five thousand dollars of a negotiation can end up being the most expensive money in the whole purchase. Two nearly identical houses, priced a little apart, can produce closing costs that are not remotely similar.

This is the sort of thing that should be settled before an offer is written, not discovered at the notary's office three weeks later. It is exactly what the Pre-Offer Risk Audit in my buying process is designed to catch, along with the other items that only become expensive after you have signed.

I am not a notary or a lawyer and this is not tax advice. Confirm the current thresholds with the province or your notary. But please, know where that line sits before you write.

Questions about your own price range? Message me or text 604-256-9186.

Source: Province of BC property transfer tax exemptions, 2026. Fair market value thresholds.

09/17/2026

Three decisions in a row now, and the policy rate has not moved off 2.25 percent. Five year fixed is sitting roughly between 3.6 and 3.9 percent.

Most coverage treats a hold as a non event. I think it is one of the more useful conditions a buyer can get.

When rates are moving, everything speeds up. People rush to lock, they skip steps, they compress a decision that deserved another two weeks. A hold takes that pressure off. Nothing is forcing a decision this month, which means you can actually do the work properly: see the house twice, get the inspection, read the documents, run the numbers at the rate that exists today rather than the one somebody predicted.

And that last part matters. Nobody rings a bell at the bottom of a rate cycle. The only rate you can act on is the one you are offered, so the honest question is whether that payment works for your family, not whether it might be half a point better in the spring.

If you would like an introduction to a lender who will give you a straight answer, message me.

Sources: Bank of Canada, RBC rate coverage July 2026, Ratehub five year fixed. Not mortgage advice.