Lions Bay

Lions Bay Community Profile

Lions Bay is a unique enclave located along the steep cliffs of the Sea-to-Sky Highway, situated between West Vancouver and Squamish. With a population of just 1,390 residents spread across a tiny 2.53 square kilometer footprint, this is not a typical suburban town. There is no commercial center, no light industry, and zero multi-family apartment inventory. Single-detached houses make up 95% of the local properties, with a minor 4% sliver of row housing making up the remainder of the market.

The demographics paint a clear picture of an affluent, highly educated professional commuter base. Exactly half of the adult population holds a bachelor’s degree or higher, and over 21% of residents work in professional, scientific, and technical services. Because there is no local commercial base to speak of, residents commute out to their jobs, averaging a 31-minute travel time to employment hubs in downtown Vancouver or the North Shore. The median age sits at 50, reflecting an established demographic of high-earning households who value the privacy and Howe Sound views that this hillside community offers.

From a physical and underwriting standpoint, Lions Bay presents distinct challenges. The entire community is built on steep, mountainous terrain wedged between the highway and the water, meaning there is virtually no flat land. Building, expanding, or renovating here requires significant engineering, geotechnical oversight, and complex drainage management to mitigate slope stability risks. While these physical constraints severely limit new inventory and keep property values high, they also introduce structural risks that traditional lenders scrutinize closely.

Despite its rugged, self-contained feel, Lions Bay is still geographically tied to Metro Vancouver. For Tekamar, this geographic boundary is the critical detail. We operate as a specialized Mortgage Investment Corporation funded by private investor capital, and our mandate is to lend exclusively outside of Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. We focus our equity lending on the regions we know best, specifically interior markets, Vancouver Island, and smaller lifestyle communities like Vernon, Kelowna, and Victoria.

Because Lions Bay falls within the excluded Metro Vancouver boundary, we do not write mortgages here. Our maximum loan-to-value for this community is 0%. If you are a broker trying to arrange financing for a complex hillside build or a high-value renovation overlooking Howe Sound, you will need to look to urban-focused private lenders. However, when those same clients are looking to leverage equity to buy a recreational property in the Shuswap, a cabin in the Kootenays, or a home in the Okanagan, that is where we excel. Send us those files, and we will get the deal structured.