Condo and office towers line the downtown skyline in Vancouver on July 4, 2025. Presales are now just a negligible part of the real estate market.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
For a long time, B.C. was one of the capitals of the world when it came to preselling homes, with buyers coming from across the globe and other markets trying to replicate the boom. But as Dorothy said in The Wizard of Oz, we’re not in Kansas any more.
According to real estate services firm MLA Canada, there were 1,426 presold homes released to the market in July, 2021, but only 572 in July, 2025. The number for this July? Forty two.
The economic impact goes beyond the developers and purchasers – who are increasingly being sued for backing out of purchases. Because presales were such a big part of the market, an ecosystem of supporting businesses formed around it, most notably the do-it-all firms that plan sales strategies, oversee the sales centres and handle sales on behalf of the developers.
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With presales now just a negligible part of the market, those firms have been forced to adjust.
“What I’m witnessing in the marketplace is that those that are adapting and evolving, it’s not just about head count shift, it’s also about service shift,” said Ryan Lalonde, president and partner at MLA Canada.
Mr. Lalonde, who founded BLVD Marketing in 2010 before merging it with MAC Marketing Solutions in 2016 to form MLA Canada, described their head count as a “fraction” of what it was 18 months ago and said their range of services has changed “dramatically” in that time to include significantly more advisory work, including letters of opinion, master plan evaluations, demographic analysis, rent rolls and pricing models.
In a nutshell, Mr. Lalonde says that most of their business when the market was good pertained to projects that somebody had already decided to build. The work today is primarily about getting to that decision. Like developers, their business is now also much more focused on rental projects than condo projects.
“The honest version is we now get hired to tell a developer their project likely does not work at the price that they need it to work at,” Mr. Lalonde said. “It’s such a strange thing for a sales and marketing firm to have to share.”
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Founded in 1991, Magnum Projects is another firm that has adjusted, both in headcount – down about 40 per cent in the past 18 months – and services. While previously focused on new condo launches, vice-president of sales Craig Anderson says their business is now heavily focused on standing inventory, be it selling it for developers, selling it via court-ordered sales, or reviewing it for lenders.
Rennie, the most prominent such firm in Vancouver, laid off 25 per cent of their staff – 31 people – last year and has also adapted in its own ways. Rennie was more of a brokerage than other firms and expanded their commercial real estate team last year. This year, they then formed a partnership with The Agency, a global real estate brokerage, that will allow Rennie to expand its services outside of Canada.
Not all firms are adapting as well, however.
Okanagan-based Epic Real Estate Solutions’ corporate website is no longer online. Epic was led by Shane Styles, whose LinkedIn indicates he departed two years ago.
Vancouver-based BakerWest Real Estate’s corporate website is also no longer online. BakerWest was led by Jacky Chan, who told The Globe last week that he sold his stake in the partnership and departed two years ago. BakerWest’s largest project also became insolvent last summer.
Epic and BakerWest were both affiliates of Ontario-based Peerage Realty, with Fraser Valley-based Fifth Avenue Real Estate Marketing also an affiliate in B.C. Fifth Avenue’s corporate website remains online, but its long-time leader Jamie Squires told The Globe last week that she departed earlier this year.
The Globe and Mail reached out to Peerage for comment, but has not received a response.
For the firms that are still alive, presale is no longer the name of the game, they have to find ways of adding value, and everything has to be earned now. Lalonde says that’s not necessarily a bad thing and carries an “only the strong survive” mentality, while Mr. Anderson has found it rewarding to be working with end-users instead of investors.
“There’s zero concrete high-rise launches,” said Mr. Lalonde. “When we go from 100 to 150 project launches per year to a small fraction of that today, there’s significantly less launches, there’s significantly less home sales, and there’s going to be significantly less people that are needed to service that work. That’s what’s reshaping our industry today.
“I’ve been in this industry a very long time. At the peak, the business didn’t require much of us: Products sold, pricing was whatever the last guy got plus 5 per cent, and marketing was renderings and a wait-list. Now, everything really has to be earned.”