Condo renovation in Vancouver's West End

The West End in the City's records

The West End is one of the 22 local areas the City of Vancouver uses for planning, and the City publishes its boundary as open data. Every figure on this page is a count inside that boundary, read on October 4, 2026.

The City's 2026 property tax report holds 10,667 records in the West End. Of those, 9,888 are strata lots, 777 are properties with a plan that is not a strata plan, and 2 have no plan number. The report has no field for how a lot is used, so the strata count covers all types of strata lot.

When West End strata lots were built

BC Assessment assigns a year built to each tax record. For the West End's 9,888 strata lots, the years fall as follows.

• Before 1950: 193 strata lots. The oldest year on a record is 1900.
• 1950 to 1969: 23.
• 1970 to 1979: 1,400.
• 1980 to 1989: 2,626.
• 1990 to 1999: 3,141.
• 2000 to 2009: 962.
• 2010 to 2019: 601.
• 2020 or later: 170.
• No year on the record: 772.

How that compares with the rest of the city

Strata lots built before 1990 make up 42.9 percent of the West End's total. For the whole City of Vancouver the share is 19.9 percent, and for the Downtown local area beside it the share is 5.4 percent. The 1970s and 1980s together account for 4,026 West End strata lots.

This is why we start a West End renovation plan with the age of the building.

What a 1970s or 1980s building changes in the plan

The first change is the hazardous materials inspection. WorkSafeBC says asbestos was used in more than 3,000 building materials from the 1950s to the 1990s, and it names drywall, textured ceiling coat, insulation, vinyl flooring and window putty among them. It also says a home built before 1990 is likely to contain some asbestos that renovation work could release.

BC law makes the inspection a duty in every building. Section 20.112 of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation requires the employers and the owner to ensure a qualified person inspects for hazardous materials before renovation begins. If the report finds any that the work would disturb, no renovation work may be carried out there until the material is contained or removed. Since January 1, 2024, contractors who remove asbestos in BC must hold a WorkSafeBC licence.

The inspection produces a written report. It gives the location of each sample, says whether the sample is hazardous, and gives the location and approximate quantity of each hazardous material. The report must be available at the unit while work goes on, and after any removal a qualified person confirms in writing that the material is contained or gone. We keep both documents with the job file and give you copies.

The second change is the building's own repair plans. A strata with five or more lots must obtain a depreciation report on a five-year cycle, and the report describes the building's plumbing, electrical and other systems with an estimated service life over 30 years. We read it before quoting, because a new kitchen or bathroom is better scheduled after any pipe work the building has planned behind those walls.

Permits issued in the West End since 2017

From January 3, 2017 to October 2, 2026 the City issued 2,364 building permits of the type Addition / Alteration in the West End. That is the second highest count of the 22 local areas, behind Downtown. The highest year was 2018, with 301, and the lowest full year was 2020, with 197.

Among Addition / Alteration permits that list Multiple Dwelling as a use, the West End has 1,361, the highest count in the city. It ranked first in each year from 2018 to 2025. The data leaves Multiple Dwelling undefined and has no field for strata or rental, so the count covers apartment buildings of both kinds.

A count of issued permits sets no rule about which work needs one. We confirm with the City what your scope needs.

Zoning codes and heritage buildings

Eight zoning district codes on the City's zoning map appear in the West End and in no other local area: RM-5, RM-5A, RM-5B, RM-5C, RM-5D, C-5, C-5A and C-6. Together they hold 5,133 of the area's strata lots. The two largest are RM-5B with 1,864 and RM-5A with 1,688. Each code has its own district schedule in the City's Zoning and Development By-law, and the City confirms what a schedule requires.

The City's heritage sites data lists 135 heritage buildings in the West End, and marks 39 of them as having a municipal designation. Under section 593 of the Vancouver Charter, the exterior and the structure of a designated building cannot be altered without a heritage alteration permit. Ask your strata whether your building is one of the 39 before planning new windows or exterior doors.

How we plan a West End renovation

We follow a fixed order, and the first two steps come before any price.

• Step 1: we look up the year built, visit the unit and arrange the hazardous materials inspection.
• Step 2: we read the bylaws, the rules, the depreciation report and, where the building has one, the electrical planning report, which sets out the capacity of the building's electrical system.
• Step 3: we prepare the strata request with you, with the same scope of work as our contract, and attach the documents your building lists.
• Step 4: after written approval, we set the start date and plan working days, deliveries and waste removal around the building's rules.