Discover Kelowna

Kelowna is a city on Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley, in the southern interior of British Columbia, Canada. Nearby communities include the City of West Kelowna, Lake Country, Vernon, Peachland, Summerland and Penticton.
You'll be able to find Kelowna as you drive on Highway 97 through British Columbia as the highway goes over Okanagan Lake and through the city.

The Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), is an area of ​​one or more neighboring municipalities that is centered on a larger city. The Kelowna City Group includes nearby:

District of Peachland, City of West Kelowna, Westbank First Nation, City of Kelowna, District of Lake Country and electoral areas east and west.

Information, images and statistics from Central Okanagan Economic Development Commission.

Related Article: Migration contributes greatly to Kelowna's population growth

Kelowna is one of the fastest growing metropolises in Canada and rightfully so. This hidden gem of a city has some amazing hot summers, temperate winters and beautiful spring and fall seasons. You'll be able to find something to keep you busy in all four seasons whether you love to Ski/snowboard, go for wine tastings, swim in the fresh water lake or just get a tan on the beach.
Kelowna is truly one of the best places in the world to call home. People from all over the world come to the Okanagan Valley each year to experience the Kelowna lifestyle and many end up staying here because of it.

Kelowna offers a variety of home styles and sizes. You can find everything from micro-condos all the way to luxury multi-million dollar mansions on the lake. Take a look at some of the recent properties we have helped clients purchase or sell by clicking on the button below.

Located in Central Okanagan with a population of less than 200,000, Kelowna CMA is the fastest growing city in the province of British Columbia (BC) and the sixth largest city in Canada. Its growth rate from 2011 to 2016 was 8.4%, surpassing the national average speed of 5% and the province's average speed of 5.6%. Kelowna is famous for its good climate and obvious four seasons, and it also makes residents over 65 years old account for 20% of the population.

At the same time, from 2011 to 2016, the proportion of the population aged 30-34 in this region has also increased significantly, with a growth rate of 21.8%, which is higher than the average growth rate of BC and the country during the same period of 13.7% and 8%. The influx of a large number of professionals and young families has promoted the development of the city's economy, and has also slowly transformed the region from the previous dependence on tourism and agriculture.

In Canada, large urban centers attract lots of immigrants. As a smaller urban centre Kelowna only accounts for 0.4% of immigration quotas. The top three immigrant countries are the Commonwealth, Germany, and the United States. This shows that the Kelowna area still maintains a good English language environment for International students to study English here. Not only that, but Kelowna has two reputable institutions of higher learning: the University of British Columbia (UBCO) and Okanagan College, which are the destinations for studying abroad and cultivating language.

From January to July of 2018, Median Price of single family house in Central Okanagan, was $893,000, a staggering 32.3% from $667,679 in the same period in 2017. The new building permit has also been reduced by 30.6% to 1,287 from 1,855 in the first half of 2017 (note: 2017 is the historical peak of building permit approval, with multi-family buildings like apartments. The reduction in 2018 is also like this. Mainly, accounting for 81% of the total reduction)

Historically, local home buyers account for 60%-65% in central Okanagan; some of them are from Vancouver, neighboring provinces of Alberta, and overseas. In the last five years, there has been an interesting change of Vancouver buyers and Alberta buyers. This is mainly due to the gradual saturation of Vancouver's housing prices, which has led investors to find another place, and the weakening of the Alberta oil refining industry has caused the depression. The proportion of overseas buyers remained at a stable 1.5%-2.5%.

Perhaps many people have not expected that the Kelowna City Group has the third-largest home ownership rate in all cities in Canada (73.3%), which is much higher than 68% in BC and 67.8% in Canada. High home ownership rates also provide a steady stream of rigid demand for local real estate.

The average unemployment rate in Central Okanagan from 2007 to 2017 was 6.4%. The main industries are medical social security, construction engineering, and food and lodging.

Most economies (88% of companies) are small businesses with employees between 1 and 19 people. With the influx of more and more people and the government's focus on developing High-Tech industries, the enterprises in central Okanagan have developed significantly faster than the entire province of BC, with companies with 20-49 employees being the most prominent. The development of economic enterprises naturally led to employment. In the first half of 2018, employment opportunities in central Okanagan increased by 22.4% compared with the same period in 2017, which is twice the growth rate of BC.