Moving From Vancouver to Kelowna: Remote Work Changed It

By Adam Smith

Adam Smith brings a proven track record of negotiation, leadership, and client-focused execution to real estate in Kelowna. With a deep understanding of high-stakes decision-making, he helps clients navigate complex transactions with clarity, confidence, and strategic insight.

Ten years ago, my family made the move from the coast up to Kelowna, and I’ve spent every year since watching other Vancouver families wrestle with the same question we did: how do you get here without putting your whole life on hold to do it?

Lately, more and more of them are finding an answer, and it’s happening faster than it used to.

Over the last 24 months, and really the last six or seven, I’ve been working with a growing number of Vancouver families who’ve discovered a middle path. They’re not leaving their careers behind, and they’re finding creative ways to get up to the Okanagan years sooner than they could have in the past.

The reason is remote work. We all heard that phrase constantly during the pandemic, but I don’t think most people have stopped to look at what it actually makes possible. My own move worked directly around it.

Let me show you what this looks like in real life. I was recently working with a family looking at a four-bedroom home with a great backyard and lots of parking in one of Kelowna’s best neighbourhoods.

They had young kids, close in age to my own, so good schools mattered. They wanted to be central, and they wanted the whole Okanagan package: the lakes, the wineries, Big White, the mountain biking, all of it. That home was priced right around a million and change. The home they’re in now, in the Vancouver area, and a good twenty years older than the Kelowna one, sits right around $1.9 million.

In the past, the move up to the Okanagan could have taken anywhere from two to four years. With remote work, that timeline has compressed in a big way. The remote-work shift has really opened up three viable paths for Vancouver families.

1. Hybrid commuter. Which is exactly what I did. It can flex week to week, but the general idea is that you’re home in Kelowna with your family three to four days a week, and you head down to Vancouver or the coast for one or two days at the office.

Some people stay with family on those nights, some stay with a friend, and in other cases, the employer puts them up in short-term accommodation or a hotel for the night or two they’re in town.

2. Full remote-work convert. These are the families who have negotiated an arrangement with their employer that allows them to work from home in the Okanagan full-time.

3. The career shifter. These families put their Vancouver equity to work to take the financial pressure off, which lets them slowly transition into a new career once they’re up here. What’s fascinating is how many families are using that equity difference to create real breathing room.

They’re reducing financial stress, building college funds, saving for retirement, and slowing life down a little instead of running at city pace.

My favourite part is what it does for the kids. The move means space to play, big backyards, great schools, and being close to everything the Okanagan has outdoors. Mountain biking, skiing at Big White, about 30 minutes away, 135 kilometres of Okanagan Lake, and Kal Lake and its turquoise water, about 20 minutes out.

There’s so much to enjoy here without grinding through traffic to get to it. It’s actually pleasant to drive to the park, to the mountain, or to the lake for a swim. And for the parents, it can mean breaking out of the paycheque-to-paycheque mortgage cycle that’s caught up so many Lower Mainland families.

It’s not just for young families. The other group I’m seeing a lot of is families close to retirement. In the past, those clients would tell me, “Adam, we’ll get up to Kelowna in five years when we retire,” or “we’re retiring in two years, so we want to start wrapping our heads around the market.”

Now, with remote-work options the older generation never had, they can move up two years before retirement and run that same hybrid setup, heading down to Vancouver for a day or two and spending the rest of the week enjoying Okanagan life well before they officially retire.

I’ve been building a family freedom calculator that can show you exactly what your Vancouver and Lower Mainland equity could do for you up here in Kelowna.

If you’d like to walk through that, along with the specifics of remote work and what it could open up for your family, give me a call at 604-813-0142 or email me at adam@vantagewestrealty.com, and I’d be glad to map it out with you.