Vancouver Mortgage Broker

Working with me in Vancouver

In Vancouver it can go any way you prefer — in person, video, or phone.

Documents can still go digital if that is easier, or we meet wherever suits you.

Vancouver, specifically

The City of Vancouver counted 662,248 residents in the 2021 Census, up 4.9% from 2016 — and more of its households rent (54.5%) than own (45.5%). BC Assessment's 2026 roll, based on market values as of July 1, 2025, put the typical single-family home in the city at about $2.09 million, down 5% from the year before, and the typical strata home at about $772,000, down 3%.

My mortgage and real estate licences both cover all of BC, so for a home in Vancouver you can come to me for the mortgage and for buying or selling.

Vancouver's own rules: the Empty Homes Tax, R1-1 zoning and leasehold land

Vancouver runs its own Empty Homes Tax, separate from the provincial speculation and vacancy tax. Every residential property in the city needs a declaration every year — including a home you live in — with the deadline in early February. If nothing is filed, the home is deemed vacant and taxed at 3% of its assessed value, plus a $250 ticket. The provincial tax is a second, separate filing that each owner on title makes by March 31. In your first year as an owner, put both dates on the calendar; if the home changed hands during the year, the City has a transfer exemption.

Since October 17, 2023, lots that used to be zoned RS for single-family homes are zoned R1-1. Depending on lot size, that allows a multiplex of three to six strata units (up to eight if all of them are rental), a duplex with up to two secondary suites, or a house with a secondary suite and a laneway home. The ownership structure drives the financing: a laneway home can't be strata-titled or sold on its own, so it's financed with the main house, while each multiplex unit is its own strata lot with its own mortgage.

Some Vancouver homes sit on leased land rather than land you own. The best-known example is False Creek South, where the City leased much of its land on 60-year ground leases, most ending between 2036 and 2046; the City has offered strata leaseholders a 20-year extension, open until February 29, 2028. With leasehold, lenders look hard at the years left: mortgage insurer Sagen, for example, requires the lease to run at least five years past the end of the amortization, and BCFSA notes that financing gets harder as the end of the lease approaches. Leasehold purchases are also excluded from BC's home buyer rescission period.

Renting part of your home short-term is tighter here than under the provincial rule alone. Vancouver requires a City short-term rental licence ($1,108 a year), the home must be your principal residence, and a basement suite or laneway home can be rented short-term only if you are the one living in that unit.

Common questions