Investing in White Rock Condos: A Complete Guide

Who rents in White Rock

Staff at Peace Arch Hospital and the medical offices around it. Teachers and school staff. Retirees who have sold a house and are renting while they decide. Younger people who grew up here and want to stay near family. Service and retail workers from the Town Centre and Marine Drive. The demand is steady rather than spectacular, and it favours well-kept one and two bedroom units within walking distance of the Town Centre. It does not favour the top of the market; a tenant paying for an ocean view is rare.

Age restrictions change the tenant pool

A large share of White Rock's condo buildings are age-restricted, most commonly 55 and over, and in BC a strata's age bylaw applies to tenants as well as owners. If you buy in a 55-plus building, your tenant must be 55 or older, which shrinks the pool and lengthens vacancies. The rents are often a little lower and the tenancies longer and quieter. Some investors prefer that; most do not expect it. Read the bylaws before you offer, and note that a strata can adopt an age restriction after you buy.

The building is the investment

Many White Rock condos are from the 1970s through the 1990s. The good ones have replaced their roofs, pipes, windows and envelopes and have a healthy contingency fund. The others are deferring, and a special levy will arrive during your ownership. The depreciation report, two years of minutes, the Form B and the insurance summary tell you which you are buying. Pay particular attention to the insurance deductible, which can be very large in an older building with a claims history and which falls on the owner whose unit a leak starts in. For an investor who is not on site, an older building with a competent, proactive council is worth more than a newer one with a weak one.

The rules you are investing under

• Short-term rentals are limited to your principal residence plus one unit on the same property in White Rock, as in most of BC. A condo bought to list nightly is not a legal strategy here.
• Rental restriction bylaws were largely overridden by the province in late 2022, so most stratas can no longer ban long-term rentals. Age bylaws still apply.
• The speculation and vacancy tax applies in White Rock. Rent the unit for the required months or pay it.
• Rent increases are capped annually by the province, and ending a tenancy requires a permitted reason and proper notice under the Residential Tenancy Act.
• The home flipping tax takes 20 percent of the profit on a sale within a year, tapering to zero at two.

Running the numbers

Take the realistic rent for the specific unit, not the listing's optimistic figure. Subtract the mortgage payment at today's rate, the strata fee, property tax, insurance, a month of vacancy a year and a repair reserve. If the result is negative, you are paying every month for the hope of appreciation, and White Rock condo prices have not been a one-way street. If it is near zero or positive, you have a property that carries itself, which is the only kind I recommend. The mortgage calculator and the affordability calculator will do the first part of that arithmetic.

What I would buy

A one or two bedroom unit in a well-run building without an age restriction, within a ten-minute walk of the Town Centre and the hospital, with a strata that has done its major work and a deductible you could absorb. Bought at a price based on recent sales in that building, held for ten years, and rented long-term to the people who already work in the town. It is not an exciting investment. It is a sound one.

The short version

• Steady demand from the hospital, the schools and the Town Centre, concentrated in modest one and two bedroom units.
• Age-restricted buildings restrict your tenants too. Read the bylaws.
• The building's maintenance history and insurance deductible matter more than the unit's finishes.
• No short-term rentals; speculation tax, rent caps and the flipping tax apply.
• Buy only what carries itself at today's numbers.

If you are considering a White Rock condo as an investment, send me the building. I know most of them, and I will tell you which ones I would buy in and which I would not.