Thursday, December 14, 2023

With the holiday season around the corner, it is a good time to reflect on the past, be thankful for what we have, and prepare for the year ahead.

The past 12 months has been a challenging year in the market with high inflation and interest rates dampening activity.  

At your Board, 2023 has been a productive and seminal year. We completed a series of initiatives that have paved the way for us to pursue an ambitious new strategic direction in 2024 and beyond. This direction will focus us on leading professionalism and innovation in real estate across Canada. 

Here is a summary of some of the key work we completed over the last 12 months.

  • Released a white paper on professionalism that provides a roadmap of actions for the real estate profession across Canada to follow. This document sets a direction to allow for higher standards, stronger business culture, and greater public trust in our REALTOR® community.
  • Completed our first action from the white paper and developed a Pledge of Professionalism for members to publicly commit to act with integrity and champion a culture of accountability throughout their careers. 
  • Launched a series of new economics products and forecasts, including “The Lede” video blog to help you and your clients have better insights into market trends and data.
  • Introduced a multiple offer disclosure form to provide greater transparency to the home buying process and bring comfort to prospective home buyers that every offer is fairly presented and considered.
  • Developed and executed a new regional real estate conference called PacificWest that hosted over 1,300 members across the Lower Mainland.
  • Received a substantial grant from the Real Estate Foundation of BC to support our Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) program, which helped us host multiple member events and create a new DEI video series focused on promoting greater openness and inclusion within the profession.
  • Expanded the Commercial Edge system to cover all of BC and Alberta.
  • Constructed a studio in our building to enhance our video, podcast, virtual event hosting and other new media production capabilities.
  • Created a data strategy to help guide our rollout of new technology products, services, and infrastructure in the year ahead.
  • Finalized a new multi-year strategic plan for the organization that pushes us to “re-imagine real estate” and pursue greater innovation and professionalism within the profession.


This is not an exhaustive list of what we accomplished in 2023, but an overview of the work we did on your behalf to pave the way for the year ahead. 

While I am looking forward to the holiday season, I am more excited about the year ahead. Stay tuned in early 2024 for announcements around our brand, data, new technology, products, and services as well as new measures targeting higher standards of professionalism.

We are living in an exciting age of innovation and disruption, and our path forward will present challenges and opportunities for us to seize upon.

I appreciate your support and engagement this past year and I look forward to the navigating the next phase of this journey together.

Wishing you and your families a happy holiday season,

Jeff King
CEO
Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver