By Jeremy Davis
It’s that time of year again when the Winnipeg Regional Real Estate Board held its annual Market Insights event digitally on February 19, 2026, which brings together real estate professionals, financial and industry business partners to gain insight into economic trends and real estate results and forecasts.
This year’s event, sponsored by One Link Mortgage & Financial, featured a jam-packed lineup with presentations from:
• Crystal Hollas, CEO, Winnipeg Regional Real Estate Board
• Keynote Speaker — Konrad Zmitrowicz, Senior Policy Advisory, Bank of Canada
• Shaun Cathcart, Senior Economist, Canadian Real Estate Association
• Ryan Munt, Executive Vice President, Cushman & Wakefield | Stevenson
• Jeremy Davis, Director of External Relations & Market Intelligence, Winnipeg Regional Real Estate Board.
This year also included a panel discussion with:
• Michael Froese, 2025-2026 President, Winnipeg Regional Real Estate Board
• Theo Kyriakopoulos, Partner, One Link Mortgage & Financial
• Caily MacGregor, Partner, One Link Mortgage & Financial
• Tannis Hogue, Vice President of Marketing, Communications & Corporate Partnerships (Moderator).
The Winnipeg Regional Real Estate Board’s new CEO, Crystal Hollas, kicked off the event with welcoming remarks followed by Keynote Speaker Konrad Zmitrowicz from the Bank of Canada who has an extensive background in analyzing commodity markets as well as monitoring and forecasting the Canadian and US economies. Most importantly, he was born in Winnipeg! Zmitrowicz led a discussion about the Bank of Canada’s recent policy decision on its key interest rate holding steady at 2.25%, where Canada’s economy currently stands, the continued trade conflict with the U.S. and the negative impact to Canada’s economy, and where it looks like Canada’s economy will go moving forward.
Shaun Cathcart, from the Canadian Real Estate Association, provided an in-depth look at national economic and demographic trends like population growth, Canada’s current population and age groups, mortgage rates, housing completions by type, Canada’s current housing stock, historical home sales and average prices, forecasts for 2026 and 2027, and Winnipeg’s current and historical housing stock.
Ryan Munt from Cushman & Wakefield | Stevenson presented an overview of commercial real estate in Winnipeg, touching on the performance of industrial, office, retail, and land through metrics like vacancy rates, rental prices, notable transactions, leasing activity, big developments on the horizon, and a general forecast for 2026.
My segment focused on a recap of the performance of residential real estate across the Winnipeg Regional Real Estate Board’s market region in 2025, highlighting the statistical trends for All MLS® property types, residential detached homes and condominiums by sales, inventory and average prices. The recap broke the results down into where sales occurred for these property types inside and outside Winnipeg, a look at home sales at or above $1 million, the top performing cities and towns outside Winnipeg and in Lake Country. Finally, a forecast was provided for 2026 sales and average prices.
New for this year was a panel discussion which saw Tannis Hogue moderate a panel with Michael Froese, Theo Kyriakopoulos and Caily MacGregor to discuss trends seen in the residential real estate market, and residential mortgage and commercial financing in 2025.
This conversation also included some lively back-and-forth on topics like what buyers should be thinking about from a financing perspective when purchasing a home, how those who are self-employed might prepare differently for a mortgage, what the difference is between being pre-approved and receiving final approval, and how the financing works when purchasing a commercial property. There were a lot of interesting perspectives provided by the panel along with some thoughts on what we can expect to see in 2026 in residential real estate and mortgage financing.
What was clear from the analyses provided on the residential real estate markets, both nationally and locally, is that the lack of housing supply is having a noticeable impact on market dynamics across the country. Despite low inventory in the Winnipeg Regional Real Estate Board’s market region, strong sales continued which shows that demand is very strong. The result of these dynamics was average price increases in almost every month of 2025, and a sales performance that moved “Against the Grain” from larger Canadian markets. The impact of the trade conflict with the United States has influenced the Canadian economy and the trickle-down impact on interest rates shows just how interconnected geopolitical relations can be with the real estate market and consumer behaviour.
As we continue into 2026, we look forward to providing you with monthly updates on how the real estate market performs along with trends and statistical analysis.
Jeremy Davis is the Winnipeg Regional Real Estate Board’s Director of External Relations & Market Intelligence.