Douglas Todd: Developers often disguise the true market value of a Canadian home

Douglas Todd: Developers often disguise the true market value of a Canadian home. Developers commonly obscure actual sale volumes and prices to create scarcity, and many claims of 80% sold are not verifiable, according to Ross McCredie of Sutton Realty. The issue is acute in stagnating British Columbia and Ontario markets, where inventory remains high; Vancouver reportedly has roughly 2,500 to 3,500 newly completed condos sitting empty, the highest in two decades per the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. Distress sales can surface as the market shifts and inventory stays elevated.

Two vivid examples illustrate the gap: Westbank’s Butterfly tower was bought pre-construction for $2.6 million and recently completed at about $1.51 million; Westbank’s Kengo Kuma highrise shows a similar price retreat. A pre-construction unit originally priced at around $2.03 million resold for about $1.38 million, underscoring the divergence between stated demand and actual market value.