Burnaby

Burnaby Community Profile and Lending Context

With a population of 249,125, Burnaby is no longer a satellite commuter town. It is a massive, self-sustaining economic engine that has grown by 7.0% since 2016. Bordered by Vancouver to the west, the city is defined by heavy transit infrastructure, high-density residential hubs, and a highly educated workforce where 47.2% of residents hold a bachelor’s degree or higher.

For mortgage brokers, Burnaby presents a highly competitive urban real estate landscape. The housing stock reflects this density. Over 32% of the market consists of high-rise concrete apartments, complemented by 23.6% low-rise apartments and 16.5% duplexes. Traditional single-detached homes make up only 18.9% of the inventory. This housing stock is heavily concentrated around key SkyTrain corridors like Metrotown, Brentwood, and Lougheed. It is an expensive, fast-moving market driven by young professionals and families, supported by a solid local employment rate of 58.2% with major sectors in professional, scientific, and technical services.

Despite Burnaby’s obvious economic strength—reflected in its high community desirability score of 9/10 and an economic score of 7/10—it falls entirely outside our lending guidelines.

At Tekamar, we built our business model on a very specific niche. We are the alternative private lender for the communities that traditional institutional lenders overlook. We do not compete with big banks or urban credit unions in the heart of the Lower Mainland. Our capital is structured to assist borrowers in mid-sized BC cities and rural resource towns, from the Okanagan to the Kootenays. Because of this strict geographic focus, our maximum loan-to-value (LTV) for Burnaby properties is 0%. We do not write mortgages here.

If you have clients purchasing pre-sale high-rises in Brentwood or looking to refinance a duplex near Metrotown, those files belong with prime lenders or urban-focused MICs. But when those same Burnaby clients decide to diversify their portfolios by purchasing a commercial property in the Cariboo, or need a quick equity-takeout second mortgage on an investment property in Victoria, that is where we deliver value. Keep us in mind for the files that sit outside the metropolitan core, where local knowledge and flexible private capital are actually required to get the deal across the finish line.