Dear Members,

In my last update, I spoke about the realities of this year’s challenging market and our responsibility as your association to support you, invest strategically, and deliver meaningful value amid the economic uncertainty that has come with it. Throughout 2025, we have continued to achieve steady progress across the priorities you have identified as most important: professionalism, service excellence, innovation, and long-term organizational strength.

A major focus for GVR this year has been raising professionalism across the real estate sector by strengthening standards for both new and existing REALTORS®. Preparations continue for the new PDP requirements coming into effect in 2026, which will help ensure that Realtors' continuing education keeps pace with today’s rapidly evolving market.

At the same time, we are advancing efforts to improve the standards for new entrants into the profession. Earlier this year, we joined the BC Real Estate Association in presenting to a national group of real estate regulators on the need to modernize licensing requirements and update the exam to better reflect the realities of contemporary practice.

We are also forging a more open and collaborative working relationship with our regulator, BCFSA, and are optimistic that this renewed approach will begin delivering tangible benefits to members in the near term.

This work aligns closely with the province-wide initiative we are leading to establish consistent MLS® standards across B.C. regardless of where you operate. The respective boards across the province are now reviewing a proposal to build out these common standards in 2026. We believe that this change would improve consumer trust and offer members greater clarity, efficiency, and consistency when operating within the MLS® environment in the province.

Our Service Re-imagined initiative continues to move forward with meaningful improvements. 

On November 24 we're launching the Member Engagement Centre, creating a single, streamlined point of contact for members to go to for their support needs from GVR. This will deliver faster, more efficient and consistent service responses to member inquiries.

We also launched a new secure online credit card portal last month, a significant step forward that allows you to self-serve as a GVR customer and make it easier to add and update your credit card information online. We will continue to build out this platform as the foundation for a comprehensive member portal that will offer greater online access to your GVR account and to our key tools, data and services.

Alongside these milestones, we are examining a broader set of core service enhancements designed to modernize how we serve you into the future. More updates related to this important initiative will follow in 2026.

Our expanding partnership strategy remains focused on delivering practical, high-impact value to members. The Telus partnership we announced in September is designed to for you to offer clients exclusive savings on home connectivity services—savings they cannot obtain on their own—right when new home buyers need them most. 

These efforts complement our other value-focused partnerships, such as Payload and Canada Post, which reduce costs, streamline operations, and support client service. I encourage you to familiarize yourself with these opportunities that we launched in 2025.

We want to continue to leverage our scale as an organization to your benefit, and we will continue to roll out new partnerships for you to take advantage of in the year ahead.

Last month, we introduced the brand for GVR’s new Community Relief Fund, launching in January 2026. This charity initiative is designed to marshal the robust community and charitable spirit within our membership and to direct our collective strength toward providing support to Canadians facing housing-related crises. The fund will provide up to $300,000 annually to individuals and families facing housing emergencies in our communities.

Over time, we think members will take great pride in their relationship with this community-minded charitable endeavour.

As we approach the end of the year, I remain inspired by your professionalism, resilience, and commitment to your clients and communities. Our work at GVR is guided by your feedback and focused on helping you succeed in every type of market.

Thank you for your continued engagement and leadership. I look forward to building on our momentum together.