White Rock sells condos. More than half the housing in the city is apartment, and most of it is old. That is why buying here is less about the suite than about the building, and why two provincial deadlines landing this year matter more to a White Rock buyer than they do almost anywhere else in the Fraser Valley.
What August actually looked like
These figures come from the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board's municipal market report for August 2026, which splits the board area into six communities. White Rock is reported on its own, so this is city data rather than board-wide data.
The apartment benchmark price in White Rock was $544,600, up 1.2 per cent from July and down 4.3 per cent from August 2025. The townhouse benchmark was $781,500, down 1.8 per cent from July and down 13.6 per cent year over year. The detached benchmark was $1.591M, up 0.8 per cent from July and down 7.4 per cent year over year.
There were 30 sales in the month against 333 active listings. That is a sales to active ratio of 9 per cent, and 12 to 20 per cent is generally considered balanced. A buyer here has time to read documents and ask questions. New listings came in at 74, down 26.7 per cent from July and down 28.8 per cent from August 2025. Sellers are stepping back faster than buyers are.
The condo held its price. The townhouse did not.
Most people selling a South Surrey or Langley house assume the townhouse is the safer landing spot. On the last year of price data, that was the more expensive assumption.
Of the six communities the board reports, White Rock had the highest apartment benchmark in August and the smallest year over year decline. Abbotsford apartments were down 10.8 per cent, North Delta 9.7 per cent, Surrey 9.4 per cent, Langley 8.8 per cent and Mission 4.7 per cent. White Rock was down 4.3 per cent, and it was the only one of the six where the apartment benchmark rose from July. Over that same year the White Rock townhouse benchmark fell 13.6 per cent, the steepest townhouse decline of the six.
One month is not a trend. It is a reason not to rule out the apartment on instinct.
Why the building matters more here than the suite
The City of White Rock's housing needs report, built on census data, counted 10,005 dwellings in the city. Of those, 4,210 were apartments in buildings under five storeys and 1,270 in buildings of five storeys or more. That is roughly 55 per cent of all housing in the city. Single detached houses came to 2,535, about a quarter.
The age profile is the part buyers underestimate. About 45 per cent of White Rock's housing was built before 1981, and 34.8 per cent of it went up between 1961 and 1980. The comparable 1961 to 1980 share for Metro Vancouver as a whole was 26.4 per cent. Another 19.7 per cent of the city's stock dates from the 1980s. So a typical White Rock apartment building is somewhere between 40 and 60 years old, a few blocks from salt water.
Age is not a defect. Plenty of these buildings are run well. But at that age the expensive components, meaning the roof, the windows, the envelope, the plumbing and the elevator, are at or past the end of their first service life. Whether that work has been funded or deferred is the biggest difference between two suites that look identical in a listing.
The depreciation report deadline has already passed
This is the most useful thing a White Rock buyer can know this fall, and the pages ranking for this market do not mention it.
Under the Strata Property Act, every strata corporation with five or more strata lots must obtain a depreciation report on a five year cycle. Strata corporations can no longer defer one by holding an annual 3/4 vote. That option is gone. Stratas with no report, or with a report received before December 31, 2020, had to obtain one by July 1, 2026 if they sit in Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley or the Capital Regional District. White Rock is in Metro Vancouver, so that deadline is three months behind us.
The report has to describe the common property and its estimated service life over 30 years, and it has to include at least three cash flow funding models for the contingency reserve fund over the same 30 years. Since July 1, 2025 it has to be prepared by one of six designated professions, among them engineers, architects, accredited appraisers and certified reserve planners.
That gives a buyer a clean test. Ask for the depreciation report. If a building of five or more units has none, or the one on file predates December 31, 2020, that strata is offside a deadline that has already passed. You learn something about how the building is run before you read a single page of it.
The next deadline is December 31
A second one is 90 days out. Strata corporations with five or more lots in Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and the Capital Regional District must obtain an electrical planning report by December 31, 2026. Like the depreciation report, it cannot be waived or deferred.
The report sets out the building's current electrical capacity, the existing demands on it, estimated peak demand and spare capacity, and the capacity needed for future demands such as EV charging and heat pumps. For a 1970s building with an underground parkade and no charging installed, it is the honest answer to whether you will ever charge a car there. It is also where the cost of a capacity upgrade would first show up.
It is a permanent strata record and it has to be disclosed on the Form B. Buildings are commissioning them now, so through the fall you will see buildings that have one, buildings that have ordered one, and buildings that have not started. The third group is worth a question.
What to read on the Form B
A buyer can request a Form B Information Certificate, and the strata has to provide it within seven days. The most it can charge is $35 plus up to 25 cents per page.
The strata's rules, the current budget, the most recent depreciation report and all electrical planning reports must be attached to it. The form itself has to disclose the monthly strata fees, the contingency reserve fund balance less anything already approved but not yet spent, any approved special levy the owner still owes and the date it is due, whether expenses are expected to exceed budget this fiscal year, any resolution that has been noticed but not yet voted on, any court, arbitration or tribunal proceeding involving the strata, and any outstanding notices or work orders. Since 2023 it also carries a summary of the strata's insurance.
Read it in that order. The levy, then the reserve balance, then the depreciation report's funding models. A healthy looking reserve on a building with no funded plan for a roof in year three is not a healthy reserve.
On price
The $544,600 benchmark is a composite for the whole city. It is not the price of an ocean view. The view premium in White Rock depends on the building, the floor, the exposure, and whether the sightline is protected by whatever sits in front of it, and the only way to price it is against recent sales in that building and the ones next to it. I can pull those.
Borrowing costs are steadier than they have been. The Bank of Canada's policy rate has sat at 2.25 per cent since the September 2, 2026 decision, with the next announcement scheduled for October 28, 2026.
If you are thinking about it
At a 9 per cent sales to active ratio there is room to do this properly. Request the Form B early rather than during a subject period, read the depreciation report before you remove subjects, and treat a missing report of either kind as information rather than paperwork.
For the rest of the local picture, start with White Rock real estate or the South Surrey real estate page. If you are selling a house to buy a condo, what your home is worth is the first number to settle.
Sources
Fraser Valley Real Estate Board municipal market report, August 2026 data, for every White Rock figure and all six community comparisons. City of White Rock Housing Needs Report for the dwelling counts, structure types and period of construction, based on Statistics Canada census data, the most recent published for the city. Province of British Columbia strata housing pages for the depreciation report requirements, the electrical planning report requirements and the Form B Information Certificate. Bank of Canada for the policy rate. Confirm anything that affects your offer against the strata's own documents.