Condo vs Townhouse in Metro Vancouver: Price per Foot, Fees and Resale in 2026
In 10 of the 11 Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley cities I track, a townhouse is listed for less per square foot than a condo. In Surrey the median townhouse asks $507 a square foot against $673 for a condo, about 25% less. In Coquitlam it's 20% less. Only the City of Vancouver flips it, and only barely: $1,033 for townhouses, $1,020 for condos. These are asking prices of active listings on EstateBlock.com as of November 3, 2026, not sale prices.
So the townhouse is usually the cheaper space. It is not the cheaper purchase. The median townhouse in those same cities asks 40% to 75% more than the median condo, because you're buying a bigger box, and that gap flows straight into your down payment, your mortgage qualification and your monthly carrying cost. The rest of this piece is the numbers I'd want in front of me before choosing between the two: price per foot, the benchmark gap, how fast each one sells, what strata fees do to your mortgage approval, and the insurance, maintenance and bylaw differences people tend to find out about after they've moved in.
Price per square foot: the townhouse usually wins
Per-square-foot asking prices are the cleanest way to compare the two, because they strip out size. The chart below uses the median asking $/sq ft for active condo and townhouse listings in each city on EstateBlock.com. Condos carry a premium per foot for a few reasons: they cluster around SkyTrain and town centres (Metrotown, Brentwood, Lougheed, Surrey Central), you're paying for shared elevators, lobbies and parkades, and smaller units price higher per foot than bigger ones.
- Condo
- Townhouse
Source: EstateBlock.com live listings, snapshot November 3, 2026. Asking prices of active listings, not sale prices.
Show the numbers
| Condo | Townhouse | |
|---|---|---|
| Vancouver | $1,020 | $1,033 |
| North Vancouver | $941 | $840 |
| Burnaby | $874 | $734 |
| New Westminster | $636 | $626 |
| Richmond | $787 | $717 |
| Coquitlam | $815 | $650 |
| Port Moody | $800 | $655 |
| Surrey | $673 | $507 |
| Langley | $634 | $524 |
| Maple Ridge | $550 | $465 |
| Abbotsford | $423 | $398 |
- Up
- Down
Source: EstateBlock.com live listings, snapshot November 3, 2026. Asking prices of active listings, not sale prices.
Show the numbers
| City | Townhouse premium (discount) |
|---|---|
| Vancouver | +1.3% |
| New Westminster | −1.6% |
| Abbotsford | −5.9% |
| Richmond | −8.9% |
| North Vancouver | −10.7% |
| Maple Ridge | −15.5% |
| Burnaby | −16.0% |
| Langley | −17.4% |
| Port Moody | −18.1% |
| Coquitlam | −20.2% |
| Surrey | −24.7% |
Another way to read the same numbers: at the median asking $/sq ft, $100,000 buys about 149 sq ft of condo in Surrey and about 197 sq ft of townhouse. In Burnaby it's 114 vs 136. In Vancouver it's about 98 either way. If what you actually need is a third bedroom or a room for a home office, the suburbs are where the townhouse earns its keep.
Vancouver and New Westminster are the exceptions worth noticing. In the City of Vancouver, land is expensive enough that ground-oriented space costs as much per foot as a tower unit. The median Vancouver townhouse listing asks $1.39M against $796K for a condo. You can browse both on EstateBlock's Vancouver townhouse and Vancouver condo pages.
The sticker gap is what you finance
| City | Condo ask | Townhouse ask | Gap | Gap % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vancouver | $796K | $1.39M | $598K | +75% |
| North Vancouver | $796K | $1.30M | $503K | +63% |
| Burnaby | $688K | $981K | $293K | +43% |
| New Westminster | $550K | $865K | $315K | +57% |
| Richmond | $687K | $1.05M | $362K | +53% |
| Coquitlam | $629K | $1.09M | $461K | +73% |
| Port Moody | $694K | $970K | $276K | +40% |
| Surrey | $499K | $785K | $286K | +57% |
| Langley | $509K | $837K | $328K | +64% |
| Maple Ridge | $449K | $747K | $297K | +66% |
| Abbotsford | $399K | $650K | $251K | +63% |
The gap runs from $293K in Burnaby to $598K in Vancouver. In percentage terms the smallest is Port Moody at 40%, the largest Vancouver at 75% and Coquitlam at 73%. A median is a mix of very different units, so treat these as a sense of scale: a 1-bedroom downtown and a 3-bedroom townhouse in Burke Mountain don't belong in the same comparison, and the median doesn't pretend they do.
Supply is lopsided too. Across these 11 cities there are 7,552 condos and 2,967 townhouses listed on EstateBlock right now. Surrey is the only big city where the two are close (1,068 vs 917). In Vancouver it's 2,240 condos against 488 townhouses, which means fewer townhouses to compare and less room to be picky.
Benchmark prices: the gap on sold homes
Asking prices tell you what sellers want. The MLS® Home Price Index benchmark is the boards' estimate of what a typical home of each type sells for, built from past sales. In Greater Vancouver the townhouse benchmark is $1.02M and the apartment benchmark $683K (September 2026, GVR's latest; October's package isn't out yet). Across the Fraser Valley board it's $742K vs $461K (October 2026).
| Area | Apartment | Townhouse | Gap | Gap % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greater Vancouver | $683K | $1.02M | $334K | +49% |
| Vancouver West | $762K | $1.30M | $537K | +70% |
| Vancouver East | $635K | $980K | $346K | +54% |
| North Vancouver | $769K | $1.23M | $461K | +60% |
| Burnaby North | $662K | $880K | $218K | +33% |
| Burnaby South | $723K | $942K | $219K | +30% |
| Richmond | $636K | $1.03M | $389K | +61% |
| Coquitlam | $640K | $977K | $337K | +53% |
| Port Moody | $676K | $941K | $265K | +39% |
| New Westminster | $580K | $854K | $274K | +47% |
| Maple Ridge | $513K | $701K | $187K | +37% |
| Fraser Valley (board) (FV) | $461K | $742K | $282K | +61% |
| Surrey (Central) (FV) | $454K | $744K | $291K | +64% |
| North Surrey (FV) | $392K | $671K | $279K | +71% |
| South Surrey & White Rock (FV) | $559K | $801K | $242K | +43% |
| Langley (FV) | $522K | $801K | $278K | +53% |
| Abbotsford (FV) | $370K | $580K | $209K | +57% |
Source: GVR September 2026 stats package (MLS® HPI benchmark). FVREB October 2026 stats package (MLS® HPI benchmark). FVREB's "Surrey (Central)" row is the board's Surrey area excluding North Surrey, Cloverdale and South Surrey.
The narrowest gaps are Maple Ridge ($187K), Abbotsford ($209K), Burnaby North ($218K) and Burnaby South ($219K). That's where stepping up from an apartment to a townhouse costs the least in dollars. The widest is Vancouver West at $537K. If you're stretching to make the jump, those four areas are where the math is kindest. See my Burnaby and Surrey pages for the neighbourhood detail.
Which one sells faster
This matters more than people think. A home you can't sell when life changes is an expensive home. Right now townhouses are moving better than apartments on both boards. GVR reported a September sales-to-active ratio of 12.2% for attached homes and 11.4% for apartments. In the Fraser Valley in October, using FVREB's sales and active listings, townhouses ran at 17.2% and apartments at 11.6%. GVR's rule of thumb is that prices come under downward pressure when the ratio stays under 12%; FVREB calls 12% to 20% balanced. So Fraser Valley townhouses are in balanced territory while apartments on both boards are below it.
- GVR (Sep 2026)
- FVREB (Oct 2026)
Source: GVR September 2026 stats package (sales-to-active ratios). FVREB October 2026 stats package (sales and active listings by type). FVREB ratios calculated from its sales and active listings by type. GVR's "attached" category includes duplexes.
Show the numbers
| GVR (Sep 2026) | FVREB (Oct 2026) | |
|---|---|---|
| Townhouse / attached | 12.2% | 17.2% |
| Apartment | 11.4% | 11.6% |
| Detached | 9.7% | 12.8% |
GVR's chief economist put it plainly in the September release: the weakness "is contained to the sizeable apartment segment." Apartment sales were down 18.6% year over year (777 vs 954), while attached sales were up 0.6%. FVREB's October average days to sell tell the same story: 37 days for a townhouse, 44 for a condo.
- Condo
- Townhouse
Source: EstateBlock.com live listings, snapshot November 3, 2026. Asking prices of active listings, not sale prices.
Show the numbers
| Condo | Townhouse | |
|---|---|---|
| Vancouver | 49 | 54 |
| North Vancouver | 42 | 43 |
| Burnaby | 56 | 55 |
| New Westminster | 48 | 55 |
| Richmond | 76 | 56 |
| Coquitlam | 53 | 40 |
| Port Moody | 43 | 43 |
| Surrey | 69 | 55 |
| Langley | 50 | 42 |
| Maple Ridge | 57 | 49 |
| Abbotsford | 60 | 54 |
On EstateBlock's live data, current townhouse listings have been sitting for fewer days than condos in 7 of the 11 cities. The biggest spreads are Richmond (76 days for condos vs 56 for townhouses) and Surrey (69 vs 55). The exceptions are New Westminster (48 days for condos vs 55 for townhouses), Vancouver (49 vs 54) and North Vancouver (42 vs 43); Port Moody is a tie. Since October 10, 2026, condo listings across these cities are down 3.4% and townhouse listings down 5.1%.
What I'd do with this: if you're buying a condo, you have time and leverage. Condos sitting past 60 days in Richmond or Surrey are the listings where I'd start below asking and keep my subjects. A well-priced townhouse in Langley or Coquitlam, on the other hand, may not wait for a second showing.
How each held value
| MLS® HPI change | GV townhouse | GV apartment | FV townhouse | FV apartment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | −4.7% | −6.2% | −5.5% | −8.1% |
| 3 years | −7.7% | −11.1% | −12.1% | −14.6% |
| 5 years | +6.0% | +0.3% | −1.0% | −1.1% |
| 10 years | +49.5% | +36.8% | +62.7% | +80.6% |
Source: GVR September 2026 stats package (MLS® HPI benchmark). FVREB October 2026 stats package (MLS® HPI benchmark).
In Greater Vancouver, townhouses have held up better over every period in the table: +6.0% over five years against +0.3% for apartments, and +49.5% vs +36.8% over ten. In the Fraser Valley the ten-year story runs the other way (+62.7% for townhouses, +80.6% for apartments), while the five-year numbers are a dead heat. So "townhouses always appreciate more" isn't something the data supports. Past changes also say nothing certain about the next ten years. What I'd take from it is narrower: in this correction, apartments have dropped further and are selling more slowly.
Strata fees and your mortgage approval
Both condos and most Metro Vancouver townhouses are strata, so both come with a monthly fee. Your share is based on unit entitlement, which for residential lots is usually habitable area in square metres (gov.bc.ca). A bigger townhouse can carry a bigger share, although a building with elevators, a concierge and a pool spreads very different costs than a 30-unit townhouse complex. The fee for the unit you're looking at is on the listing and in the strata's budget; get it from there, not from an average.
Lenders count it. CMHC's debt-service rules include 50% of condominium fees in your gross debt service (GDS) ratio, alongside principal, interest, property tax and heat, and cap GDS at 39%. The payment is calculated at the qualifying rate: the greater of your contract rate plus 2% or 5.25% (the same test OSFI applies to uninsured mortgages). Simple rule: every $100 a month in strata fees adds $50 to your GDS, which means you need about $1,538 more gross income to qualify for the same mortgage.
Here is a hypothetical side by side. The prices are rounded from Burnaby's median asking prices; the strata fee, property tax and heat are placeholders I picked to keep the comparison simple (same fee on both), not averages. Contract rate 4.58% (the Bank of Canada's August 2026 average for uninsured 5-year-plus fixed mortgages), so you qualify at 6.58%. 20% down, 25-year amortization.
| Hypothetical example | Condo | Townhouse |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase price | $690,000 | $980,000 |
| Down payment (20%) | $138,000 | $196,000 |
| Mortgage | $552,000 | $784,000 |
| Payment at qualifying rate 6.58% | $3,724 | $5,289 |
| Property tax / month (placeholder) | $183 | $258 |
| Heat / month (placeholder) | $60 | $110 |
| 50% of strata fee (fee $480 placeholder) | $240 | $240 |
| GDS housing cost / month | $4,208 | $5,898 |
| Gross income needed at 39% GDS | $129,464 | $181,472 |
| Actual monthly cost at 4.58% (full strata fee) | $3,803 | $5,222 |
Source: my calculation using the CMHC GDS method and the Bank of Canada uninsured 5-year fixed average; Canadian semi-annual compounding; rows may not sum due to rounding. With 20% or more down, your lender sets its own ratio limits.
The townhouse needs about $52,000 more household income to qualify and costs about $1,420 more a month to carry. That's the real price of the extra space. Run your own numbers in the mortgage affordability calculator, and budget closing costs with the closing cost calculator. If you're under 20% down, the insurance premium is added to the loan, which I cover in CMHC insurance explained; the stress test post has the qualifying-rate detail.
Insurance, deductibles and maintenance
In a regular strata, condo or townhouse, the strata corporation has to insure the common property, common assets and the buildings shown on the strata plan at full replacement value (Strata Property Act s. 149). You insure your contents, improvements and liability, plus anything the strata policy doesn't cover. The detail people miss is the deductible. Under s. 158 it's a common expense, but the strata can go after an owner for it if that owner was responsible for the loss: the dishwasher hose that floods three units below you, for example. In a stacked condo building, your leak travels. In a side-by-side townhouse, it usually stays closer to home.
Two things I'd do either way: read the strata's insurance summary and deductibles before you remove subjects, and ask your own insurer how your policy treats a deductible chargeback. Since August 14, 2020 the strata must tell owners as soon as feasible about a material change in coverage, including a higher deductible (gov.bc.ca).
One townhouse-specific trap: bare land strata. Some townhouse and row-home complexes are bare land stratas, where the lot is the strata lot. The Act lets owners in a bare land strata insure the buildings on their own lot (s. 161(2)), and the standard repair bylaw for building exteriors (bylaw 8(d)) doesn't apply to bare land strata lots, so who repairs the roof and siding depends on the strata's own bylaws. Fees can look low if owners carry costs the strata doesn't. Check the strata plan type on the title search before you compare fees.
| Item | Typical condo (apartment strata) | Typical townhouse (strata) |
|---|---|---|
| Building insurance | Strata policy | Strata policy (bare land: check; owners may insure under s. 161(2)) |
| Roof, exterior, windows | Strata repairs | Strata repairs under standard bylaw 8 (bare land: check bylaws) |
| Yard, patio | Usually balcony only | Limited common property: you do routine upkeep, strata does structure, fences, less-than-yearly work |
| Elevators, parkade, amenities | Often yes, in the budget | Rare |
| Where a leak goes | Can travel to units below | Mostly your own unit |
The standard bylaws (bylaws 2 and 8) split maintenance like this: the strata repairs common property, the structure and exterior, balconies, exterior doors and windows, and fences around patios and yards; the owner looks after the inside of the unit and routine upkeep of limited common property such as your own yard. Many stratas file their own bylaws, so read the actual ones. Either way, the big-ticket items (roofs, envelopes, parkade membranes, elevators) are paid from the contingency fund or a special levy. A depreciation report is now required every five years for stratas with five or more lots, bare land ones included, and it's the best document you'll get for seeing what's coming.
Renting it out, pets and bylaws
If you might rent the place out later, the old condo-vs-townhouse question about rental restrictions is mostly gone. Since November 24, 2022 no BC strata can have a residential rental-restriction bylaw, and s. 141 bars stratas from screening tenants or otherwise restricting rentals. Short-term rental bylaws are still allowed, with fines up to $1,000 a day, so an Airbnb plan lives or dies on the bylaws and on local rules (my short-term rental post covers those). Age restrictions are now limited to 55+ buildings.
Pets are where condos and townhouses still differ in practice, because the bylaws differ. The standard bylaws allow one dog or one cat; plenty of stratas have their own pet rules, and a townhouse with a fenced yard is a different life with a dog than a 20th-floor unit. Read the bylaws, not the listing remarks.
How I'd choose
My read, based on the numbers above:
- Buy the condo if the budget is the hard limit, you want transit and walkability, and you're comfortable buying in the weaker segment. Apartments are where buyers have the most leverage today, and you can negotiate accordingly. Pick a building with a recent depreciation report and a healthy contingency fund, because that's what protects resale.
- Buy the townhouse if you need the space for the next five to ten years (kids, a home office, a dog). Per square foot it's the better deal almost everywhere outside Vancouver, it sells faster right now, and you're less exposed to your neighbours' leaks and elevator bills.
- Look hardest where the step up is smallest: Maple Ridge, Abbotsford and Burnaby on the benchmark gap, and Surrey, Coquitlam, Port Moody and Langley on the asking $/sq ft discount.
Whichever you pick, qualify for it first with the strata fee included, and read Form B, the minutes and the insurance summary before subjects come off. If you're weighing new construction too, my presale vs resale comparison covers the other half of the choice, and income needed to buy in Vancouver has the household-income math by property type. The strata and mortgage rules above are general information; confirm your own situation with your lender, a lawyer or notary, and your insurer.
FAQ
Is a townhouse cheaper than a condo in Metro Vancouver?
Per square foot, usually yes: on EstateBlock's November 3, 2026 snapshot, townhouses asked less per square foot than condos in 10 of 11 cities tracked, the exception being the City of Vancouver. As a total price, no: median townhouse asking prices run roughly 40% to 75% above condos. These are asking prices of active listings, not sale prices.
Do strata fees affect how much mortgage I qualify for?
Yes. CMHC's rules include 50% of condominium fees in your gross debt service ratio, capped at 39%. Every $100 a month in strata fees adds $50 to GDS, which takes about $1,538 more gross annual income to offset.
Who insures a strata townhouse in BC?
In a regular strata, the strata corporation must insure common property, common assets and the buildings shown on the strata plan. In a bare land strata the Act lets owners insure the buildings on their own lot (s. 161(2)), so check the strata plan type, the bylaws and the strata's insurance summary.
Can a strata stop me renting out my condo or townhouse in BC?
Not for long-term rentals. Since November 24, 2022 residential rental-restriction bylaws are invalid. Stratas can still ban or limit short-term rentals, with fines of up to $1,000 a day.
Which sells faster, a condo or a townhouse?
Right now, townhouses. GVR's September 2026 sales-to-active ratio was 12.2% for attached homes and 11.4% for apartments; in the Fraser Valley in October, townhouses ran about 17.2% and apartments about 11.6%, and FVREB's average days to sell were 37 for townhouses and 44 for condos.
Sources
- Greater Vancouver REALTORS®: September 2026 stats package
- Fraser Valley Real Estate Board: October 2026 stats package
- CMHC: Calculating GDS / TDS
- OSFI: Minimum qualifying rate for uninsured mortgages
- Bank of Canada: uninsured residential mortgages, fixed 5 years and over (V122667786)
- Strata Property Act, Part 9 (insurance, ss. 149 to 162)
- Strata Property Act, Part 8 (rentals, s. 141)
- Strata Property Act, Schedule of Standard Bylaws
- Government of B.C.: Changes to strata legislation
- Government of B.C.: Unit entitlement
- Government of B.C.: Strata depreciation report requirements
- EstateBlock.com: Vancouver condos for sale (snapshot November 3, 2026)
- EstateBlock.com: Vancouver townhouses for sale (snapshot November 3, 2026)
- EstateBlock.com: North Vancouver condos for sale (snapshot November 3, 2026)
- EstateBlock.com: North Vancouver townhouses for sale (snapshot November 3, 2026)
- EstateBlock.com: Burnaby condos for sale (snapshot November 3, 2026)
- EstateBlock.com: Burnaby townhouses for sale (snapshot November 3, 2026)
- EstateBlock.com: New Westminster condos for sale (snapshot November 3, 2026)
- EstateBlock.com: New Westminster townhouses for sale (snapshot November 3, 2026)
- EstateBlock.com: Richmond condos for sale (snapshot November 3, 2026)
- EstateBlock.com: Richmond townhouses for sale (snapshot November 3, 2026)
- EstateBlock.com: Coquitlam condos for sale (snapshot November 3, 2026)
- EstateBlock.com: Coquitlam townhouses for sale (snapshot November 3, 2026)
- EstateBlock.com: Port Moody condos for sale (snapshot November 3, 2026)
- EstateBlock.com: Port Moody townhouses for sale (snapshot November 3, 2026)
- EstateBlock.com: Surrey condos for sale (snapshot November 3, 2026)
- EstateBlock.com: Surrey townhouses for sale (snapshot November 3, 2026)
- EstateBlock.com: Langley condos for sale (snapshot November 3, 2026)
- EstateBlock.com: Langley townhouses for sale (snapshot November 3, 2026)
- EstateBlock.com: Maple Ridge condos for sale (snapshot November 3, 2026)
- EstateBlock.com: Maple Ridge townhouses for sale (snapshot November 3, 2026)
- EstateBlock.com: Abbotsford condos for sale (snapshot November 3, 2026)
- EstateBlock.com: Abbotsford townhouses for sale (snapshot November 3, 2026)
Dan Marusin PREC, REALTOR® · Renanza Realty Inc., 777 Hornby St, Suite 600, Vancouver, BC. This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice.