Kelowna + Okanagan: our top three waterfront real estate practices for 2026

A closer look at the lakeshore

The lake does a remarkable amount of the selling in an Okanagan property photograph. It supplies the colour, the horizon and the promise of a different pace. An agent’s public work becomes more interesting when it gives a reader something useful beyond that first impression.

For this edition, we looked for an explicit waterfront focus, local material worth reading and a clear way into the property offering. Our three selections approach that brief differently. Jane Hoffman puts waterfront at the centre of a specialist practice; Hall Cassie Marshall Group adds a dedicated lakeshore publication; Stone Sisters makes room for several forms of waterfront living.

01 · Jane Hoffman — a dedicated waterfront lens

Jane Hoffman’s current practice is Unison Jane Hoffman Realty. Its public site gives waterfront a prominent place, with dedicated paths for Kelowna, West Kelowna and Lake Country. That specificity is the first reason it leads our selection. A reader can move from a broad attraction to the lake into a more defined area of interest.

What we value here is the consistency of the brief. Waterfront is easy to find and clearly part of the practice’s identity. For someone beginning a search, that creates a useful first question: which part of the lakeshore belongs on the shortlist, and why?

We would start with the waterfront collection and then ask for a narrower conversation around the actual property and setting. The recognition is for a focused public presentation that makes that next step feel natural.

02 · Hall Cassie Marshall Group — give us something to read

Hall Cassie Marshall Group’s lakeshore material gives us a different reason to pay attention. Its website maintains a dedicated lakeshore section and publishes The HCM Lakeshore Report. Sotheby’s International Realty Canada also identifies the group’s waterfront and lake-property specialties; Scott Marshall’s brokerage biography describes his work on that report.

A specialist publication is an appealing addition to a property search. It makes room for context, a point of view and a conversation that can continue before a reader is ready to make an inquiry. That is the idea we are recognising in this selection.

We would use the report as an opening to the discussion, then ask how its observations apply to the particular shoreline or home under consideration. The useful test of any market commentary is whether an advisor can explain where the general picture stops and the individual property begins.

03 · Stone Sisters — more than one version of lake living

Stone Sisters, with RE/MAX Kelowna, gives waterfront homes, townhomes and condominiums separate paths in its public navigation. Neighbourhood guides and luxury-marketing information sit alongside those categories. That structure earns our attention because it acknowledges that a waterfront search can begin with very different ideas of home.

A detached house, a townhome and a condominium suggest different conversations about space, maintenance and daily life. We like a starting point that lets a reader explore those possibilities without assuming that the largest property is automatically the right answer.

The strength we are recognising is the breadth of that invitation. It gives someone who is still refining their idea of Okanagan living several sensible places to begin.

The question behind the shortlist

Our selection favours a clear waterfront brief and material that helps a reader ask a more specific question. It is an editorial order based on public presentation and resources, rather than a claim about audited transaction totals. We have not inspected the homes or tested these practices through a client engagement.

If we were beginning the conversation, we would bring a simple description of the life we wanted to lead by the water. How much space? How much upkeep? Which part of the region? Then we would ask each practice to show how its local knowledge changes the shortlist.

That is where these three become interesting to us: each has put a distinct waterfront proposition into public view. The next step is to see how that proposition holds up against the details of an actual search.