NEIGHBOURHOOD · KELOWNA

McKinley Landing: the lakeshore at the end of the road

McKinley Landing is the stretch of Okanagan Lake shoreline north of Wilden, where one master-planned community has been building a hillside of homes above its own beach and marina. It now carries the highest detached median of any area I track. It also sells so few homes some years that the median needs reading with care, and there’s an access question every buyer should hear before the view does the talking. Here’s the record, and what I’d tell you at the table.

McKinley Landing by the numbers

Every figure below is a median of single family detached sales recorded on the Association of Interior REALTORS® MLS® System, as of September 2026, covering sales through August. Read it as a range. This neighbourhood has sold as few as four detached homes in a year, and one lakeside house can move the median on its own.

Two things in that table matter more than the rest.

It’s the most expensive area I track, and the gap has widened. The median so far this year is $1,625,000, about 72% above the Central Okanagan, and higher than Wilden or Crawford Estates. In 2016 it sat about 50% above the region. Over ten years it gained 96%, second only to Wilden among the nineteen areas I track, against 71% for the region. My read is that the mix changed: as the master plan filled in, more of what sells here is newer homes with lake views, and that’s what the median is measuring now.

Read the year, not the month. Four detached sales in 2017. Thirty-six in 2020. Twenty-three so far in 2026. With counts that small, the mix is the number, and a year with three lakeside homes in it looks like a different market from a year with none. That’s how 2024 shows $1,750,000 and 2025 shows $1,435,000 without anything about the neighbourhood changing in between. The ten-year line is the trend. Any single year is a snapshot of whichever houses happened to sell.

Where it is and what it is

McKinley Landing sits on the east shore of Okanagan Lake, north of Wilden and the Glenmore valley, with Lake Country beyond it. It’s inside the City of Kelowna, about fifteen minutes from downtown on a clear road. The name goes back to John McKinley, who homesteaded here from 1896, and to the landing itself, where the CPR’s lake steamers stopped to take on wood for fuel. The landing is long gone.

Most of what you see today is McKinley Beach, a master-planned community of about 872 acres approved for about 1,300 homes and built by one developer, NADG. It has roughly a kilometre of shared beachfront, a marina of about 110 slips and trails through the hillside above the water. The plan is a long way from finished, so construction is part of the neighbourhood for years yet.

The land around it is where the arguments are. In July 2024 council voted unanimously against even considering a plan change that would have opened about 671 more acres next to McKinley Beach, outside the City’s permanent growth boundary, for roughly 2,000 more homes. Separately, in July 2026 council voted 6-2 to advance a plan amendment for the North Glenmore sector nearby, over two councillors’ objections about the growth boundary and the infrastructure bill. What gets built on the hills around McKinley over the next few decades is a live question, not a settled one.

What the homes are like

Newer detached homes and townhomes on a slope above the lake, with the waterfront and near-waterfront lots at the bottom of the hill carrying the biggest numbers. The view is the price here. Two homes with the same floor plan can sit hundreds of thousands of dollars apart because one of them looks straight down the lake and the other looks at its neighbour.

Three things to check on any of them. First, the slope: this is steep lakeside ground, and the City’s hillside rules need a development permit and a geotechnical report for work on slopes over 20%. On a resale, ask what was done when the house was built; on a lot, budget for the engineer before the architect. Second, the water: McKinley’s supply came from the Glenmore-Ellison Improvement District, drawn from the lake and treated with UV, and on 1 January 2025 that district became part of the City’s water utility, with the transition still running. Nothing I’ve seen points to a problem. It’s a change in who you call and how you’re billed, and worth confirming on the address. Third, what the community costs you each year: amenity fees, covenants and any strata obligations, in writing, before subject removal.

Then the road. There is one way in and out, Glenmore Road North to McKinley Road. A second connection toward Clifton Road has been discussed for more than a decade as an emergency route, and I haven’t found anything confirming it has been built, so I treat it as not there until the City says otherwise. That matters because this is a hillside in the wildfire interface. On 18 August 2023 the Clifton and McKinley area went under evacuation order, and the last alerts for City properties were lifted on 5 September. Owners who lived through that ask about the road on every showing, and a buyer should too.

Buying here: what I’d tell you at the table

Selling here: what actually works

Sell the lake, then the house. The buyer for McKinley Landing is buying the water, the beach and the view before they’re buying a kitchen. The photography and the listing have to lead with what they can see from the deck.

Answer the road question before it’s asked. FireSmart work, insurance renewals, what you did in August 2023. A buyer who has to raise it discounts for the surprise. A buyer who gets it up front prices the house.

Price against the right slice of the plan. Waterfront, lake view and filtered view are three different markets inside one neighbourhood. The comparable that matters is the one on the same view line.

Don’t let one year’s median set your number. With sales this thin, last year’s figure can be off by a couple of hundred thousand dollars in either direction for reasons that have nothing to do with your house.

Questions people ask about McKinley Landing

Is McKinley Landing part of Kelowna?

Yes. It’s inside the City of Kelowna, north of Wilden on the east shore of Okanagan Lake. City council decides its zoning and development, and since 1 January 2025 its water comes through the City’s utility.

How do you get in and out of McKinley Landing?

By Glenmore Road North and McKinley Road, and that is the only route. A second emergency connection toward Clifton Road has been discussed for years; I haven’t seen it confirmed as built, so plan as though it isn’t. Downtown is about fifteen minutes when the roads are clear.

Why is McKinley Landing so expensive?

Newer homes, a lake view from most of the hill, a beach and a marina inside the community, and not many sales. The median so far in 2026 is $1,625,000, about 72% above the Central Okanagan, and with twenty-odd sales a year a few lakeside homes can push it up or down on their own.

Is McKinley Landing a good place to live?

If you want a newer home with the lake in front of it and don’t mind a drive for groceries, it does that better than almost anywhere in the city. The trade is the single road, the construction that comes with an unfinished master plan, and a hillside in the wildfire interface. I’d want you to be clear-eyed about all three before you fall for the beach.

What is my McKinley Landing home worth?

It depends on the view line more than anything else. A home looking straight down the lake and a home looking across at the next roof are priced like different neighbourhoods, and the median can’t tell you which one you have. Send me the address and I’ll show you the sales that actually compare, and what I’d list it at.

Who should I call about McKinley Landing?

I’m Braden Koop, a REALTOR® with REMAX Kelowna (licence 191956). McKinley Landing is one of the nineteen areas I track every month, and the hills just south of it, Wilden and North Glenmore, are where I’ve sold the most. On a house here I’ll bring the comparables on the right view line, the road and fire questions, and six years as an HVAC technician when we walk the mechanical. Call or text 250-801-8725, or send the address through the contact page.

Go deeper

Every area I work is on the neighbourhoods map, with these figures side by side.

Market figures on this page are medians of single family detached sales recorded on the Association of Interior REALTORS® MLS® System for the McKinley Landing sub-area and the Central Okanagan, pulled September 2026 and covering January through August 2026 for the current year. NOTE: this representation is based in whole or in part on data generated by the Association of Interior REALTORS®, which assume no responsibility for its accuracy. They describe the market, not any one home, and this area sells a few dozen homes a year at most, so read a single year’s figure as a range. Community, road, fire, water and council facts are drawn from the City, the Regional District’s emergency operations, the developer and public reporting, and were current as of September 2026. Braden Koop Personal Real Estate Corporation operates under REMAX Kelowna. Each REMAX office is independently owned and operated.