Sidney Mortgage Broker

Can a Sidney 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. Sidney works the same way.

Sidney, specifically

Sidney counted 12,318 residents in the 2021 Census, up 5.5% from 11,672 in 2016 and below the Capital Region's 8.4%. The town covers just 5.10 km²; the Town says about 40.9% of residents are over 65, twice the provincial seniors' share, and expects roughly 10% growth over the next 20 years. It calls itself Sidney by the Sea and puts downtown Victoria a 30-minute drive away, with Victoria International Airport and the Swartz Bay ferry terminal minutes off.

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

Sidney specifics: three or four units outside R4, three conditions for short-term rentals, new development charges, and the idle Anacortes ferry

Council adopted a new zoning bylaw on June 24, 2024, bringing in the provincial small-scale multi-unit housing rules at the end of that month. They apply to the Neighbourhood Residential group (R1, R1-ESA, R2, R2-ESA and R3) and to Multi-Unit Residential lots under 750 m², but not to R4. A lot of 280 m² or less may have three units and a larger lot four, in forms ranging from secondary suites and duplexes to townhouses, triplexes, fourplexes and garden suites. The bylaw generally requires one parking space per unit, and a lot inside a development permit area may need a development permit before a building permit is issued.

Short-term rentals are allowed on most residential properties, with three conditions. The home must be continuously occupied as a principal residence, by the owner or a tenant; no more than two bedrooms on a lot or strata lot may be rented, with at most two adults per bedroom, for stays under 90 consecutive days; and since January 1, 2025 the operator needs a Town business licence at $200 a year. Since May 1, 2025 the Province has also required registration on its short-term rental registry, or listings come down.

Development charges have been rebuilt. The Town says its development cost charge bylaw had not been updated since 1998; on September 14, 2026, Council adopted an updated development cost charge bylaw and a new amenity cost charge bylaw, a charge Sidney did not have before. The Town projects the updated program will raise more than $22 million over the next 20 years for infrastructure such as water, sewer, drainage, parks and roads. The new fees took effect on adoption, with a one-year exemption for complete applications already in stream. At the same meeting, a related waivers and reductions bylaw received three readings but is not yet adopted; once it is, eligible non-profit rental projects with at least 30% affordable units could have their development and amenity cost charges cut by up to half. Anyone planning a rebuild or addition should confirm what they will owe.

Washington State Ferries' Anacortes, Friday Harbor and Sidney route is out of service until at least spring 2030 because of vessel availability. BC Assessment's typical Sidney house value rose 2% to $953,000 for 2026. Sidney owners file the yearly speculation and vacancy tax declaration, foreign buyers pay the additional property transfer tax because the town is in the Capital Region, and on top of the Town's rules, short-term rentals are bound by the provincial principal residence requirement.

Common questions