Richmond Condo Prices Are Trending Up 4.2 Percent. Here Is What First-Time Buyers Need to Do Right Now.

I want to share something with you that I have been watching quietly over the last few weeks, because I think it changes the conversation for first-time buyers in Richmond in a meaningful way.

Richmond home prices are trending up 4.2 percent compared to the 90-day average. That is not a headline you have been reading anywhere. The broader narrative has been all about a buyer's market and falling prices, and that narrative is still largely true. But underneath it, something is starting to shift in Richmond specifically. The market here is waking up before most people realize it.

Let me give you the full picture so you can make sense of that number. Richmond currently has 2,059 active listings and an absorption rate of 5.4 percent, which means only about five in every hundred listed properties sell each month. Homes are averaging 40 days on market. By any traditional measure, this is still a buyer's market and buyers still have negotiating room. But that 4.2 percent price trend upward over the last 90 days tells you that demand is quietly returning. The people who waited for the clearest possible signal that the bottom was in are now the people competing against each other for the same listings.

Across Greater Vancouver, the GVR June 2026 data released July 3rd confirmed that all housing types posted year-over-year sales gains in the same month for the first time in recent years. GVR chief economist Andrew Lis described it as a rare occurrence and a potential early sign of a broader market shift. The apartment benchmark across the region sits at $695,200, down 7.1 percent from a year ago. But the direction of travel is changing and Richmond is one of the markets where that change is most visible right now.

Here is what this means practically for a first-time buyer who has been on the fence.

The programs that make buying more accessible have not changed. The First Home Savings Account, the RRSP Home Buyers Plan giving you access to up to $100,000 in tax-sheltered savings for your down payment, the federal GST rebate on new builds under one million dollars, the 30 year amortization for insured mortgages introduced at the end of 2024. All of that is still on the table. What is changing is the competitive environment. Six months ago you could take your time, write an offer well below asking, and expect a response. That window is narrowing in Richmond as prices start to find their floor and tick upward.

The Canada Line corridor remains the part of Richmond I would have any first-time buyer focused on. Brighouse, Lansdowne, and Aberdeen give you transit walkability that changes your daily life and supports resale demand that is among the most consistent in the city. There is still real product available in the $580,000 to $720,000 range depending on building age, size, and floor level. A prepared buyer with financing in order and a clear sense of what they are looking for can still move decisively in this market. But the window where you can be completely leisurely about it is getting shorter.

I am not going to tell you that prices are about to spike or that you need to panic buy this week. That is not how I operate. What I will tell you is that the data in Richmond right now is pointing in one direction and first-time buyers who have been waiting for a signal are looking at one. The question is whether they are paying attention.

If you want to sit down and figure out what your actual buying power looks like in Richmond right now, what neighbourhoods make sense for your situation, and what buildings I would and would not recommend based on what I know about their stratas and long-term value, let's talk. That conversation costs you nothing and might be the most useful hour you spend this summer.

Neville Mak, REALTOR® The Real Brokerage 778-688-6667 | nevillemakre@gmail.com | nevillemak.ca Serving Richmond and Burnaby