There are condos in Kelowna selling right now at prices that would have been hard to imagine a few years ago, and some of them are starting to look like genuinely good opportunities. Inventory is still very high, sellers have more competition than ever, and developers still have hundreds of units to move.
That means you have far more choice than buyers did a few years ago, and prices have finally come back down to earth. Here are the types of Kelowna condos I think offer the best value in this market.
This is probably where the biggest opportunities sit today, especially if you want something brand new. There are newer condos around Kelowna with asking prices substantially below what someone originally agreed to pay during the pre-sale years of 2020 and 2021.
The market looked completely different then. Rates were low, prices were climbing quickly, investor demand was near all-time highs, and there was a lot of confidence that by completion these units would be worth more or could be rented for top dollar. Five or six years later, that is not how it played out. A number of these buildings completed into a much softer condo market, and the rental rules changed on top of it — which hit owners who planned to rent short-term particularly hard.
What you have now is an unusual situation: original owners reselling nearly identical units are competing with each other and with the developer’s remaining inventory, while the developer is competing right back. I have seen recent examples where the gap between the original pre-sale price and today’s value is well into six figures — $200,000 to $300,000 in some cases. That is a difficult spot for those sellers, and I do feel for them. They bought when there was no end in sight.
As a buyer, you can often get that same condo for substantially less, and you get something the pre-sale buyer never had: the finished building. You are not looking at a rendering or a scale model in a sales centre. You can walk the unit, see the actual view — including the ones on lower floors where the promised lake view turned out to be a sliver through a gap — understand how 600 or 700 square feet really feels as a two-bed two-bath, and read the strata documents with the strata actually operating.
One caution: a discounted new condo can still be a poor purchase. If the layout is weak, the location within the building is bad, or there are simply too many identical units, the discount does not save you. Compare it hard against recent sales and against everything else available. But if the building checks out, the unit is good, and you plan to own it long term, I would be paying very close attention.
This one is less exciting, but a solid two-bedroom is the type of condo I would feel most comfortable owning in this market. It fits a lot of different lives — living alone with an office, a couple needing extra space, a family with one child, or a downsizer who still wants a room for family to stay.
You can see that preference in the sales data. Two-bedroom condos are making up well over 50% of sales in the market today. I cover this in my monthly condo market update if you want to follow it.
That said, two bedrooms on a floor plan does not tell you much if the second bedroom is barely usable. Some of the newer buildings have second bedrooms that are smaller than dens in older buildings. I want to know whether a real bed fits, whether there is a proper closet, whether there is decent natural light, and whether the room would still function as a bedroom if you had been using it as an office.
Apply the same test to the rest of the unit. Can you fit a normal couch, a dining table and a TV without a strange furniture arrangement or buying all new pieces just to make it work? None of this is exciting, but you notice it once you live there — and so will the next buyer.
There are older condos in Kelowna right now giving you a surprising amount of space for the price. You can find two-bedroom units considerably larger than what is being built today, with proper dining areas, bigger bedrooms, an actual laundry room, more interior storage, plus a separate storage locker.
I have seen plenty of these where the primary bedroom fits a king with nightstands on both sides and a dresser, and you can still walk around the bed. That sounds basic until you compare it to some of the tighter floor plans going up now.
A good example currently on the market is a unit at The Verve on Yates Road — roughly 1,200 square feet, updated, listed around $465,000. The floor plan is close to ideal: a proper foyer instead of walking straight into the kitchen, a den plus two bedrooms placed on opposite sides of the unit, dining and living in the middle, kitchen off to the side, and a balcony. The only thing that would improve it is a top-floor location.
For me it comes down to space, layout and price. If you can buy something noticeably larger and easier to live in for less than a newer unit nearby in the same location, I would take that seriously. Building age does not scare me — what matters is what is happening behind the scenes with the strata, which I will get to.
This matters enormously in a market with this much similar inventory. In some buildings you will have several units listed at once with nearly identical floor plans, similar finishes and the same bedroom count, separated by a couple of floors. If there are eight near-identical condos available when you go to sell, there is very little stopping a buyer from walking down the hall and buying that one instead.
Given the choice, I would rather own the unit that stands out when four or five others hit the market. That could be a corner unit with windows on two sides and much better natural light, a significantly larger patio, a top-floor location, an unobstructed lake view, two parking stalls, extra storage — which matters a lot if you are downsizing — or a rare floor plan in a building full of smaller ones. A ground-floor unit with a yard qualifies too.
You notice it once you are actually out viewing. Five or six similar units in the same complex, four of them essentially interchangeable, and then you walk into the fifth and immediately understand why someone would prefer it. Those are the ones that sell quickly when priced properly.
This will not impress you at a showing. There is never a sign in the lobby bragging about the contingency reserve fund. But a well-run strata saves you a lot of headaches later, and I want the boring ones.
Go through the strata documents carefully. I want to see regular maintenance being completed, money being set aside for future work — there is a legal minimum of 10% going into the contingency reserve fund here — and meeting minutes where the same major problem is not being discussed for two years without anyone dealing with it.
I also want to see the strata planning for what is coming. If a building is 20 to 25 years old, the roof is usually the big one. Elevators need servicing, HVAC and AC systems age out, insurance costs seem to climb every year, and major components eventually get replaced. If the strata has planned ahead, a new roof or a window replacement is far less likely to arrive as a surprise special levy.
This is exactly why I would not pick a building purely because it has the lowest monthly strata fees. Unusually low fees sometimes mean owners have deferred increases for years, and when a major project lands there is no money to pay for it. That is when you get special levies running into thousands of dollars per owner. A boring, well-run strata does not improve your view, but it makes owning easier and makes the unit easier to resell.
Good outdoor space changes how a condo lives day to day. Plenty of units technically have a balcony, but there is a big difference between room for two chairs and an outdoor area where you can eat dinner, have people over, keep some plants, and spend a summer evening without feeling cramped.
I would pay attention to ground-floor units with a private yard, oversized patios, large covered decks, rooftop terraces, and corner units where the outdoor space wraps around. In Kelowna, where you are outside a good portion of the year, that makes a real difference — particularly if you are coming from a house and are used to having a yard.
Go stand out there at different times of day before you buy. Is it actually private? Are you baking in afternoon sun on a patio you then cannot use? Are you staring at a busy road? Is there enough room to use the space the way you want to? I would rather have a somewhat smaller outdoor area I use constantly than a large one that photographs well and sits empty.
It also helps at resale. If there are several two-bedroom condos available but yours has the large patio overlooking the lake or one of the few private yards in the complex, you have something the others do not.
A building with a lot of listings can actually put you in a strong position. If there are seven or eight condos listed in the same building, that is frustrating for every seller, because each new listing becomes competition and one price reduction forces everyone else to respond.
As the buyer, you get to compare all eight. Which has the better view, the better layout, the better location within the building, the better parking or storage. You can also see which seller has been sitting longest, which unit has already taken price reductions, and where there is room to negotiate further.
If it is an older building, I would want to understand why there are so many listings in the first place before going any further — that could be a strata problem, not just a market one. If it is a newer building with a lot of similar inventory arriving at once, the explanation is obvious and the leverage is real.
In that situation I would buy one of the better units rather than the cheapest one just to save another $10,000 or $20,000, assuming it is in budget. Five to seven years out I am fairly confident today’s excess inventory will be gone and we will be dealing with a shortage again. What you are left holding is the actual condo — and I would rather hold the one someone else wants when it is my turn to sell.
With over a thousand condo units available in Kelowna right now, I would use that inventory to be very picky. A good floor plan, decent natural light, useful storage and parking, a healthy strata, and if possible something the other units in the building do not have. Then I would look hard at the price.
The overall condo market is soft, and that softness is exactly why these opportunities exist. You have more choice, more negotiating room, and in some cases you are buying for considerably less than someone paid a few years ago.
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