Method | How We Measure
How we measure these prices
Every number in this hub comes from one place and one calculation. Here is exactly what is in it, what is not, and where it is weakest. If a figure elsewhere on the site looks surprising, the explanation is probably here.
The short answer
Every figure in this hub is a median of active MLS® listings for townhouses, half duplexes, and row houses built in the last two years, recalculated on each site build. 1,394 listings were in scope on 11 August 2026. A statistic drawn from fewer than 8 listings is published as a range, and fewer than 4 is not published at all.
- Listings in scope
- 1,394
- Measured on
- 11 August 2026
- Median rule
- 8+ listings
- Publish floor
- 4 listings
1. What is in scope
The filter is narrow on purpose, and it is enforced on the server so it cannot be widened by a query string:
- Property type: Residential
- Property sub-type: Townhouse, Half Duplex, or Row House (Non-Strata)
- Status: Active
- Year built: the current year minus two, or later
Deliberately excluded: apartments and condos, detached houses, duplexes sold as whole buildings, triplexes, quadruplexes, manufactured homes, and recreational property. Mixing any of those in would make every figure on the site less useful, because they price on completely different logic.
The two-year window is what makes the comparison fair. Every home in the set was built to broadly the same code, with the same warranty framework, in the same construction cost environment. That is what lets a price per square foot comparison mean something.
2. How the figures are calculated
Median, not average. Every price, size, fee, and tax figure is a median. In a market where one listing can be four times the price of the one beside it, an average describes nothing anyone is actually buying.
Price per square foot is calculated per listing first, by dividing list price by finished floor area, and the median is then taken of those values. Dividing a median price by a median size, which is the easier calculation, gives a different and wrong answer.
Ranges shown alongside a median are the 10th and 90th percentiles, so they describe the middle 80% of listings rather than the full spread including outliers.
Floor area under 300 square feet is treated as a data entry error and excluded from every size-derived figure. It never affects the listing count.
Canadian mortgage convention. Payment figures use the semi-annual compounding required by the Interest Act, not the monthly compounding a US-style calculator uses, so they match what a lender quotes.
3. The sample size rules
These are enforced in code rather than left to whoever writes a page, so no page can publish a median of six listings as a market fact.
8 or more
A median is published, with the 10th to 90th percentile range beside it.
4 to 7
A range is published with the sample size, never a single figure.
Fewer than 4
Nothing is published. The page says there is not enough data instead.
4. Field coverage, including the weak spots
Not every listing states every field. Where coverage is partial we print the sample size beside the figure rather than presenting a partial count as a complete one. The two rows at the bottom are the ones to treat with the most caution.
| Field | Listings | Coverage | Used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finished floor area | 1,394 | 100% | Every price per square foot and median size figure on the site |
| Neighbourhood | 1,360 | 98% | Every neighbourhood-level table and ranking |
| Usable coordinates | 1,263 | 91% | Map pins and the transit distance calculations |
| Suite status | 820 | 59% | Counts of homes with a rental suite |
| Strata amenities | 753 | 54% | What a strata fee covers |
| Monthly strata fee | 659 | 47% | The strata fee page and the monthly carrying cost |
| Annual property tax | 421 | 30% | The property tax page and the monthly carrying cost |
5. What these numbers cannot tell you
- → What homes sold for. These are asking prices on active listings. In a slow market homes trade below them.
- → What prices will do next. Nothing here forecasts. Any page that gives you a number for next year is guessing, and we would rather say so than join in.
- → Whether a neighbourhood is good. A listing feed cannot measure schools, safety, or character, so this hub does not rate them. It measures what homes cost and how big they are.
- → Anything about condos or detached houses. Both are outside the scope entirely.
- → Your actual property tax bill. The figure a listing states is the current owner's, and a newly finished home may not have a full year of assessment behind it yet. Confirm with BC Assessment and the municipality.
6. Rules and rates, which are checked by hand
Tax thresholds, exemption limits, and lending rules do not come from the listing feed. They come from government and regulator pages, and they change by legislation rather than by market. Every one of them carries the date a person last opened the source and confirmed the figure, shown in the source list at the foot of each page.
Interest rates are pulled from the Bank of Canada at build time rather than typed into a file. The series we publish is the posted five-year conventional mortgage rate, which is not the discounted rate you will be offered. That is why the carrying cost page shows a grid of rates instead of picking one and calling it yours.
Current figure on the median home in scope: $1,346,450 list price, $368 monthly strata fee from 659 listings, and $4,097 annual property tax from 421 listings.
Common questions
What exactly is in the data?
Active listings on the MLS® feed with a property sub-type of Townhouse, Half Duplex, or Row House (Non-Strata), a property type of Residential, and a year built of the current year minus two or later. Nothing else. Condos, apartments, detached houses, and anything older are all outside the scope.
Why medians rather than averages?
Because one very expensive or very large home moves an average and does not move a median. In a market where a single listing can be four times the price of its neighbour, the median is the figure that describes what a typical home actually looks like.
Are these sold prices or list prices?
List prices. Every number describes what is on the market now, not what has changed hands. That is a real limitation and worth stating plainly: a list price is an asking price, and in a slow market homes sell below it.
How often do the numbers change?
They are recalculated from scratch on every site build. There is no cached figure anywhere and no page holds a hard-coded number. Each page shows the date it was measured, which is the build date.
What are the known limits?
Three. List prices rather than sold prices. Uneven field coverage, with strata fee on 47% of listings and property tax on 30%. And a scope that excludes condos and detached houses entirely, so these figures cannot tell you anything about those markets.
Can I check the numbers myself?
Yes, and that is the point of every listing link on these pages. Each figure sits beside links to the actual homes behind it. If a median looks wrong, open the listings and see.
Where these figures come from
- VanPlex active listings, MLS® data
Active townhouses, half duplexes, and row houses built in the last two years across Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.
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- BC Assessment
Assessed values, which drive the municipal property tax bill.
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- Bank of Canada, Canadian interest rates
Posted 5-year conventional mortgage rate and the policy interest rate.
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- Government of BC, property transfer tax rates
1% to $200,000, 2% to $2M, 3% above $2M, plus a further 2% on residential value above $3M.
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- Government of BC, newly built home PTT exemption
Full exemption at $1,100,000 or less, partial to $1,150,000. Effective 1 April 2024.
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- Government of BC, first time home buyers' PTT exemption
Full exemption at $835,000 or less, partial to $860,000. Effective 1 April 2024.
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- CMHC, mortgage loan insurance premiums
2.80% at 80.01 to 85% LTV, 3.10% to 90%, 4.00% to 95%.
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- CMHC, mortgage loan insurance for consumers
Insurance is unavailable at a purchase price of $1.5M or more, where 20% down is required.
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- Canada Revenue Agency, GST/HST new housing rebate
GST applies to new homes. The rebate reduces it on qualifying purchases.
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- Government of BC, home owner grant
Reduces annual property tax on a principal residence, subject to an assessed value threshold.
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See the homes behind these numbers
Every figure on this page comes from listings you can open. Search the full set of newly built townhouses, half duplexes, and row houses, and filter by price, bedrooms, freehold or strata, pets, and parking.