The 28-year-old financial planner first started looking at one-bedroom condos in 2016, around the peak of the market. “It was just bananas so I took a step back,” he said, in an interview at his Vancouver office.

He’s glad he waited. He now figures he might even be able to afford a detached home and is viewing properties at around the C$1.1 million mark in East Vancouver. To make it affordable, he’s teaming up with his best friend to purchase the property—and offering way under asking. It hasn’t quite worked out yet. One offer for about C$200,000 less than the listing price was rejected.

“We haven’t closed on anything but the market in my opinion is still trending down so why would I rush into buying something if I don’t need it this second?” he said.

Then there’s Robin Rickards, who happened to be looking for a temporary home at a serendipitous time. The 64-year-old orthopedic surgeon needed a place to stay while his current home was being rebuilt into an oceanside oasis. He ended up making an offer on three different homes and got one for almost C$1 million less than the original asking price.

“It’s like a candy store for buyers right now,” Clara Hartree, the realtor working with Rickards, said by email.

The Frustrated Flippers
The twisty, cantilevered glass tower is one of Vancouver’s most hotly anticipated developments. It starts as a triangle at its base—wedged awkwardly between the on and off ramps of a downtown highway—before swiveling into a square at the top.

That iconic silhouette helped developer Westbank Corp. rapidly sell out some 400 ultra-luxe units when presales began in 2014, thanks in part to avid interest from Asian buyers. As it nears completion, investors are seeking to offload rights to more than two dozen units, according to listings cropping up on realtor websites.

One flyer offers a 368-square-foot unit at C$515,000. “Transfer at original price,” it reads in Chinese. Last year, it would’ve fetched as much as C$800,000, says Jerry Huang, a realtor with Nu Stream Realty Inc., which specializes in presale developments.

“That’s an insane deal,” he said. Presales were once seen as a slam dunk—put down a 20 percent deposit, flip the contract at a premium before completion, and pocket the gains.

Westbank said in an email that in the five years since some investors purchased, values have appreciated from 25 percent to 100 percent depending on the unit. The number of so-called assignment sales is less than 10 percent of total units in the building and “in-line with expectation.”