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BCFSA CEO Discusses Navigating Rising Risks and Consumer Expectations at the Pacific West 2025 Real Estate Conference
The continual rise in expectations on real estate professionals means they are under pressure not just to meet consumers’ needs, but to exceed them in ways that build lasting confidence.
That was part of the message from Tolga Yalkin, CEO of BCFSA, speaking at the Pacific West 2025 Real Estate Conference in Vancouver on October 20, 2025.
Yalkin also spoke about how real estate professionals and BCFSA, as the regulator, can work together to enable and protect the conditions that make that confidence possible in a world where AI adoption, economic shocks, climate events, and legal and policy changes are constant.
“When both are working as they should—when professionals are earning trust and the system is reinforcing it—the result is a market that truly serves people and strengthens communities,” Yalkin concluded.
Read the full text of his speech, entitled A Profession of Confidence: Navigating Rising Risks and Expectations, below.
Speech | Tolga Yalkin, October 20, 2025
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No one can debate that the advances in artificial intelligence are staggering.
In only a few short years, AI has moved from concept to everyday tool. It can search, summarize, and compare information at a speed and scale beyond human capacity. Already, consumers are using it to scan listings, compare neighbourhoods, and even review contracts in ways that once required a professional’s time and effort.
AI is changing things. It is enabling in many ways—helping people access information quickly, see patterns, and make comparisons more easily. But it is also exposing. It creates new vectors for fraud and misinformation, from falsified documents to deceptive listings. It can make what is false look convincingly true.
But AI is not the only force reshaping the ground beneath us. Other risks are also growing. Economic shocks move faster than family budgets can adjust. Climate events are reshaping insurance costs and even the livability of neighbourhoods. And legal and policy developments are making once-assumed certainties of ownership and land use more complex.
At the same time, consumer expectations of services are rising sharply. People expect faster responses, clearer communication, and greater accountability than ever before. Increasingly, they judge every interaction not against others in the same field, but against the best experiences they have anywhere. The standard is being set by technology platforms, fintech, and online retail. This continual rise in expectations means that professionals are under pressure not just to meet needs, but to exceed them in ways that build lasting confidence.
All of this changes what confidence means. For much of the last century, confidence was something we inherited from a relatively stable world. Markets moved gradually, institutions were trusted, and predictability itself inspired assurance. Even when trust in the profession was uneven, the system itself carried people along—stability did much of the work. But that era has passed. Today, confidence no longer arises from stability; it is what enables resilience when stability can’t be relied upon. It must be built actively—through conduct, clarity, and accountability. It must be earned through the integrity of professionals and sustained through the transparency of systems. In that sense, confidence has become not a condition we enjoy, but a discipline we practise—the work that makes uncertainty navigable.
These pressures weigh heavily in real estate. Buying or selling a home is not like choosing a new phone or appliance. It is the place where families live and communities are built. It is the largest financial commitment most people will ever make—high stakes, largely irreversible, complex, and infrequent. That combination means uncertainty has outsized impacts: there is more at stake, fewer chances to get it right, and little room to recover if things go wrong.
And when the stakes are that high, information alone is not enough. AI can accelerate search and comparison, but it cannot act in a client’s interests, reconcile competing risks, or be accountable for outcomes. Its limits reveal something important: in a world where technology can deliver facts in seconds, the true value of professionals lies in something different—the ability to connect dots, weigh competing considerations, and offer advice that instils confidence. Information may be abundant, but sound judgment remains scarce. That is the work of a professional.
What people need from a professional is threefold.
They need to know the professional is acting in their interest—because in every transaction there are competing pressures, and consumers must be confident their advisor is firmly committed to their needs.
They need someone they can trust—and trust has two dimensions. It rests on competence, the ability to provide coherent, knowledgeable advice that stands up under pressure. And it rests on integrity, the assurance that actions match words and that risks are surfaced, not hidden.
And they need sound judgment—because decisions are complex and often emotional, and people rely on professionals to weigh risks and guide them away from mistakes that could follow them for years.
In ordinary times, these qualities improve outcomes. In uncertain times, they are indispensable. They turn uncertain facts into accountable advice, and together, they form the foundation of confidence itself—the quiet assurance that decisions are being made wisely and in good faith. That confidence gives consumers the courage to act. It sustains the value of professional advice and provides the resilience that markets and communities need to function.
The most direct consequence of losing confidence is that people turn away from professionals. They either delay decisions or rely on do-it-yourself approaches—online tools, AI, or unlicensed advice. And when that happens, they may in fact be more exposed: exposed to risks they cannot fully see, to mistakes that are difficult to reverse, and to outcomes that undermine their security.
Technology will continue to evolve, in ways both promising and unpredictable. That uncertainty only reinforces the importance of confidence in professional advice—the surest safeguard people have when so much else is in flux.
Confidence is not built in policy or regulation alone. It is earned every day through the work of professionals—through competence, integrity, and judgment—and it is safeguarded by the systems that hold those qualities to account. It begins with individual actions, and it endures because the framework around them sustains trust over time.
That is the regulator’s role: to enable and protect the conditions that make that confidence possible.
That means three things for regulators:
- Defining the parameters of trust—setting expectations, standards, and accountability.
- Guarding the integrity of the system—ensuring fairness, transparency, and proportional consequences when things go wrong.
- Building resilience—ensuring the ecosystem can adapt to shocks without losing public trust.
When both are working as they should—when professionals are earning trust and the system is reinforcing it—the result is a market that truly serves people and strengthens communities.
In the end, it is confidence that allows us to keep faith in one another—and in the systems we build together—to act wisely when the path ahead is uncertain.
Once, confidence was the product of order. Now, it is its precursor—the condition that allows progress in a world that no longer stands still.
