New Home Prices in Vancouver: Up 0.7% in September, the Biggest Gain Since February 2022

Builders' prices for new houses and townhomes in Metro Vancouver rose 0.7% in September 2026. That's the biggest one-month gain since February 2022, according to Statistics Canada's New Housing Price Index, released October 22. It's still 2.1% lower than a year ago and 4.6% below the July 2022 peak.

One month up after a long slide doesn't make a turn. But it's a different picture from the resale side, where Greater Vancouver's detached, townhouse and apartment benchmarks all fell again in September. Below: what the index measures, the long history, how Vancouver compares with the rest of Canada, how much completed new stock is sitting unsold, and what I'd do if I were buying or selling a newer house or townhome right now.

Source: Statistics Canada, Table 18-10-0205-01, New Housing Price Index, Vancouver CMA, total (house and land). Changes calculated by EstateBlock from the published index values.

What the New Housing Price Index measures

Three things to know before using this number, all from Statistics Canada's notes:

• It's new single, semi-detached and row homes only. Condo apartments aren't in it. For presale condos, see my presale condo post.
• It tracks the same house over time. Builders report the contract price for homes whose specifications stay the same from one month to the next, so a shift toward bigger or smaller homes doesn't move it.
• It excludes GST. The prices are market selling prices less value-added taxes. The index isn't revised and isn't seasonally adjusted.

The index is set to 100 in December 2016. Vancouver at 123.4 means the same new house costs about 23% more than it did then. It's a price change, not a price: StatCan doesn't publish the dollar value of a typical new home. Vancouver here is the census metropolitan area, which runs from West Vancouver and Vancouver out to Surrey, Langley and Maple Ridge.

Vancouver new home prices since 2020

New home prices in Metro Vancouver climbed 22% from January 2020 to the July 2022 peak of 129.4, then stopped. Since that peak the index has fallen in 25 months and risen in 12, with the rest flat. The decline sped up this spring: from 124.5 in April 2026 to 122.5 in July, a 1.6% drop in three months, after 2.4% over the twelve months before that. August edged up 0.1% and September 0.7%.

The Bank of Canada's first rate increase of that cycle came on March 2, 2022; the index topped out four months later. The policy rate has since come down to 2.25%, where the Bank held it on September 2. The next decision is October 28, and I've covered what's at stake in my rate announcement preview.

Every September since 2007

The index moves slowly. In the 20 years shown, the 12-month change to September was negative in 8: 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2023, 2025, 2026. The biggest drop was 2009 (−6.5%); this year's −2.1% ranks third. The biggest gain was 2021 (+10.4%). Over the same 12 months to September 2026, GVR's resale detached benchmark fell 7.3%. Next to that kind of swing, a 0.7% monthly move in the new-home index stands out.

House vs land: the building is what got cheaper

StatCan splits the index into the house (the structure) and the land under it, based on builders' estimates. Over the past 12 months the house component fell 2.9% and the land component 1.4%. The house component is 6.7% below its July 2022 high; land only peaked in November 2024 and is 1.9% below that. StatCan marks the land numbers "use with caution", so I'd lean on the house side.

My read: builders are giving back on what they control, the build itself, while the land side hasn't come down much. If that holds, new townhome prices have less room to fall than resale. That's an opinion from two index lines, not a forecast.

Vancouver vs the rest of Canada

Vancouver's −2.1% is the 7th-weakest of the 27 metro areas in StatCan's table. Toronto (−4.9%), Oshawa, Hamilton and St. Catharines-Niagara fell more, and so did Kelowna (−4.0%) and Victoria (−2.5%). The places where new home prices are still rising are mostly in Quebec and the Prairies, led by Trois-Rivières (+3.0%).

For September alone, Vancouver's gain was the 3rd-largest of the 27, just behind Ottawa (Ont. part) (+0.74%) and Oshawa (+0.71%) against Vancouver's +0.65% (calculated from the published index values). Nationally the index fell 0.2% in the month; British Columbia rose 0.5%.

New vs resale: builders held up better

Sources: Statistics Canada, Table 18-10-0205-01, New Housing Price Index; Greater Vancouver REALTORS®, September 2026 stats package (MLS® HPI, Greater Vancouver); Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, September 2026 statistics package (MLS® HPI, Fraser Valley Board). The NHPI is an index, the MLS® HPI rows are benchmark prices; the comparison is of percentage changes only.

Over 12 months, resale detached benchmarks fell 7.3% in Greater Vancouver and 8.8% in the Fraser Valley. Resale townhouses fell 4.7% and 6.2%. Builders' prices for the same kinds of homes fell 2.1%. In September, every resale benchmark in the table dropped while the new-home index rose.

The two measures aren't built the same way, and the NHPI's area overlaps both boards only partly. Still, the gap matters if you're choosing between a new townhome and a five-year-old one down the street. The resale unit has been repricing faster. Which seller has more room to negotiate depends on that particular builder or owner, not on the index, so ask.

Completed and unsold: new houses, semis and rows

CMHC counts new homes that are finished but not sold. At the end of September 2026 the Vancouver area had 1,703 completed, unsold single-detached, semi-detached and row homes, up from 1,591 a year earlier (+7.0%). The mix moved: unsold single-detached houses fell from 415 to 359, while semis rose from 412 to 511 and rows (townhomes) from 764 to 833.

Sales of completed homes (CMHC calls them absorptions) from January to September: 1,029 singles, 815 semis and 895 rows in 2026, against 1,326, 606 and 1,237 in 2025. For comparison, 4,588 condo apartments were completed and unsold in September, which is where most of the new-home overhang sits (that's in my housing starts post).

My read: townhomes are the type piling up, with fewer sold than last year and more sitting finished. That's where I'd expect builders to offer incentives and negotiate. Fewer completed singles sold too, but the unsold count for singles still went down.

What resale houses and townhomes ask today

Source: EstateBlock.com city pages, snapshots of October 10 and October 23, 2026 (active listings, asking prices). These are asking prices of active listings, not sale prices, and they include both new and resale homes listed on the MLS®.

Surrey, Coquitlam and the Township of Langley accounted for 1,037 of the 1,607 row-home starts in the Vancouver area from January to September 2026, by CMHC's count (CMHC Housing Market Information Portal, Vancouver CMA). Surrey also has the deepest townhouse inventory on EstateBlock: 958 listed in Surrey at a median ask of $788,200, 266 in Langley at $836,944. Median asks moved less than 2% either way in the two weeks between snapshots. In my experience asks are sticky; the movement shows up first in what sells and how long it takes. Median days listed for townhouses ran from 35 to 51 days across these cities. For more, see Vancouver townhouse prices and the Surrey market.

What I'd do with this

For first-time buyers, the federal GST relief on new homes can change the math on a new townhome; I go through the rules on my own site in GST on new homes in BC; the other programs are in first-time home buyer BC here. Tax rules depend on your situation, so confirm yours with an accountant or lawyer before you sign. If you own a newer home and want to know where it sits today, get an instant evaluation, or text your address to 778-918-5990 and I'll send you an evaluation.