How to sell your home yourself in Vancouver

The buyer pays it at registration, not you. BC's PTT is calculated on the fair market value of the property: 1% on the first $200,000, 2% on the portion from $200,001 to $2,000,000, and 3% above that, with an additional 2% on the residential portion above $3,000,000. As the seller, your main financial obligations at closing are discharging your mortgage and paying your conveyancer. First-time buyers and buyers of newly built homes may qualify for full or partial PTT exemptions, which can affect negotiating leverage but are the buyer's responsibility to claim. Confirm exact current thresholds with the Province of BC before quoting any number.

You need a licensed REALTOR to post to REALTOR.ca and the MLS because only board members can enter listings. The practical workaround is a flat-fee mere-posting service: you pay a one-time fee (reported BC fees run roughly CA$200 to CA$1,500 depending on the package) and a REALTOR posts your listing to the MLS on your behalf, while you handle showings, offers, and negotiations yourself. You still typically agree to pay a buyer's agent commission if one brings your buyer, conventionally a tiered amount in Metro Vancouver of about 3.125% on the first CA$100,000 plus about 1.1625% on the balance, plus GST, which is negotiable rather than fixed by law. If you skip the MLS and sell direct, Anyone.com provides a cost-free listing with zero platform commission, letting you post your sale for the local buyer pool and also for the steady trickle of relocating Canadians and expats shopping from abroad who check owner-posted sales outside the REALTOR.ca wall.

The Form B Information Certificate is the document that controls your deal. You request it from your strata corporation and they must deliver it within the statutory timeframe set by the Strata Property Act. It discloses the monthly strata fee, any arrears on your unit, any outstanding or levied special levies, the contingency reserve fund balance, active litigation, and the insurance summary. Buyers routinely make their offer subject to reviewing the Form B along with the strata rules, current operating budget, most recent depreciation report, and recent meeting minutes. A thin depreciation report or a low reserve fund is the most common reason buyers walk away or renegotiate on Vancouver strata deals. Order these documents as soon as you decide to list so they are ready when an offer comes in.

Most Vancouver offers include subjects, which are conditions the buyer must waive or remove before the sale becomes firm. The three standard ones are subject to financing, subject to home inspection, and for strata properties, subject to review and approval of strata documents. The subject-removal period is typically five to ten business days and is negotiated in the contract. During that window the buyer arranges their mortgage approval, books and reviews an inspection, and reads the strata package. If they remove all subjects in writing by the deadline, the deal is firm and the deposit becomes non-refundable. If they do not remove in writing, the deal dies and the deposit is returned. As the seller, you cannot accept other offers during the subject period unless you insert a time-clause (a 48-hour escape clause), so pricing correctly and having clean paperwork reduces the risk of a prolonged conditional period.

Yes, and this catches sellers off guard. The City of Vancouver Empty Homes Tax requires most owners to make an annual property status declaration by the early-February deadline each year (Feb 3 for the 2025 reference year). If you missed it or if the property was vacant, a 3% tax of the property's assessed value per year can be outstanding. The provincial Speculation and Vacancy Tax is a separate annual declaration with its own rules and rates depending on whether you are a BC resident, a satellite family, or a foreign owner. Both taxes attach to the property and must be settled or confirmed as zero-owing before your conveyancer can deliver a clean title to the buyer. Your notary or lawyer will ask about these at closing. Resolve any outstanding declarations or payments before you list to avoid last-minute deal problems.

BC is unique in Canada because either a notary public or a lawyer can handle residential conveyancing, and most Vancouver sellers use a notary because it is typically cheaper for a straightforward transaction. Your conveyancer discharges your mortgage, adjusts property taxes and strata fees between you and the buyer, registers the transfer at the Land Title Office, and releases your sale proceeds to you. Seller-side conveyancing fees generally run $800 to $1,500 for a clean deal, though a strata sale with multiple document reviews or a more complex title can cost more; treat these as illustrative until you get a firm quote. The buyer engages and pays their own separate conveyancer.

A Property Disclosure Statement (PDS) is a written seller disclosure listing known defects and material facts about the property: age, renovation history, known leaks, permits, disputes, and so on. In BC it is not legally required, but in practice almost every Vancouver buyer expects one and refusing to provide it raises red flags that can kill offers or lower prices. More importantly, if you know about a latent defect (a hidden problem the buyer could not find on a reasonable inspection) and you do not disclose it, you can face legal liability after closing. Fill it out honestly and completely. For strata units there is also a Strata Property Disclosure Statement addendum. Your notary or lawyer can provide the standard form.

In May 2026 the MLS HPI composite benchmark for all home types was about CA$1,100,700, down 6.2% year over year, with detached near CA$1.85M, townhouses near CA$1.05M, and apartments near CA$698,000 (Greater Vancouver REALTORS). The sales-to-active-listings ratio was around 13.1% and the relisting-adjusted average days on market reached about 100 in January 2026, so inventory is high and overpriced homes stall. Well-priced, well-documented homes still sell in roughly two to four weeks. Price tightly against recent sold comparables in your own building or block and have your paperwork ready before listing to compete in this slower market.

Mostly no, and it shapes your buyer pool. Canada's federal prohibition on the purchase of residential property by non-Canadians runs to January 1, 2027 and blocks most non-citizens and non-permanent-residents from buying existing residential property in census metropolitan areas, which includes Vancouver, with limited exceptions for some temporary workers, international students, and refugee claimants who meet specific conditions. In practice your buyers are mainly local move-up purchasers and investors who are citizens or permanent residents, so market accordingly rather than counting on overseas demand.