Saanich Mortgage Broker

Can a Saanich mortgage be handled remotely?

Yes. A mortgage broker licence in BC is provincial (mine is #MB609900), not city by city.

The process was never built around meeting in person — the application is online, documents go by email or a secure upload link, and most paperwork can be e-signed remotely. The few documents that need a witness get signed with a local lawyer or notary near you, no trip required.

Plenty of clients finish the whole process without meeting in person. Saanich works the same way.

Saanich, specifically

Saanich counted 117,735 residents in the 2021 Census, up 3.1% from 2016, which the District says makes it the largest municipality in the Capital Regional District and the eighth largest in BC; its 2024 Annual Report also calls it the largest municipality on Vancouver Island, with 47 km of marine shoreline. The District says Saanich blends both the rural and urban: the University of Victoria and Camosun College are both here, 60% of households own their home, and single detached houses made up 46.65% of the housing stock in 2021, or 22,380 units.

My mortgage and real estate licences both cover all of BC, so for a home in Saanich you can come to me for the mortgage and for buying or selling. Mortgage documents go digital, and most signing happens remotely.

Saanich specifics: the Urban Containment Boundary, three to six units, and the four bus exchanges

Much of Saanich's rulebook turns on its Urban Containment Boundary. Since June 30, 2024, residential lots inside the boundary can have between three and six units without rezoning, depending on the size and location of the parcel; the District says it rezoned approximately 27,000 lots previously zoned for single detached or duplex use to allow three, four or six units. Outside the boundary, properties are allowed one secondary suite.

On suites, Saanich has removed the owner occupancy requirement for both secondary suites and garden suites, and both may be permitted on the same property. Rural parcels outside the boundary also fall under the Farm Residential Footprint rule: the house and any residential uses have to sit within one contiguous portion of the parcel.

Four provincial Transit-Oriented Areas apply in Saanich, around the Uptown, Royal Oak, UVic and VGH bus exchanges (Transit-Oriented Area Bylaw 2024, No. 10015). Within 200 metres of an exchange the maximum height is ten storeys at 3.5 FSR, and from 201 to 400 metres six storeys at 2.5; within 400 metres there are no minimum off-street parking requirements for residential development apart from accessible parking (adopted June 10, 2024), and these lots are exempt from the three-to-six-unit rules. The Agricultural Land Reserve, airport zoning, floodplains and other sensitive areas, and heritage designations can still limit what a given lot allows. Saanich also designates its own Transit-Oriented Areas in its Official Community Plan, at Burnside-Tillicum, Quadra-McKenzie and Gordon Head-McKenzie.

Most future growth is planned for Saanich's Centres and Villages. The Official Community Plan calls the Uptown Core the "heart of Saanich," and the Uptown-Douglas Plan was adopted February 28, 2022; the Shelbourne Valley Plan followed in May 2026; the Tillicum Burnside Plan has finished three of its five phases, its draft went to Council's Committee of the Whole on April 27, 2026, and Phase 4 public engagement closed at the end of July, so it is not yet adopted. Both provincial measures reach Saanich too: residential owners must declare for the speculation and vacancy tax, and foreign buyers pay the additional property transfer tax.

Common questions