Lions Bay

Lions Bay occupies a unique and often misunderstood piece of real estate on the Sea-to-Sky corridor. It’s not quite the North Shore, and it’s certainly not Squamish. What it is, fundamentally, is an affluent residential enclave for people who want a seaside lifestyle within commuting distance of Vancouver, but without the density. With a population just under 1,400 and a land area of only 2.5 square kilometers, this is a tight, constrained market defined by its geography and a specific community ethos.

The borrowers here are different. You’re not dealing with a resource-based economy; the top industries are professional, scientific, and technical services. With a median household income of $140,000 and half the adult population holding a bachelor’s degree or higher, the financial capacity is strong. This isn’t a town built around a mill; it’s a community of established professionals and retirees. The median age is over 50, and one in four residents is a senior. This demographic, combined with a deep-rooted environmental consciousness and a preference for slow growth, shapes the local housing market.

Don’t expect to find much diversity in the housing stock. The market is overwhelmingly dominated by single-detached houses, which make up 95% of all dwellings. There are virtually no apartments or duplexes. This scarcity, coupled with the high desirability of ocean-view properties, keeps values firm but can also impact liquidity. It’s a small market where a handful of listings can represent a significant portion of the available inventory at any given time. The community’s character—politically engaged and protective of its natural surroundings—means large-scale development isn’t on the horizon. This isn’t a place that’s looking to expand.

Given this context, brokers often ask where we fit in. The direct answer is, we don’t. While Lions Bay has the feel of a small, independent town, it functions squarely within the orbit of the Greater Vancouver real estate market. Our mandate at Tekamar is to lend exclusively outside of Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. We are built to understand the economies and recovery timelines of places like Kelowna, Prince George, and Grand Forks—not the unique dynamics of the GVRD’s periphery.

Our safety-first model relies on predictable worst-case scenarios, and the legal costs, foreclosure timelines, and market volatility of Metro Vancouver present a completely different operational challenge. It’s a risk profile that falls outside our appetite and our expertise. For that reason, our maximum LTV in Lions Bay is 0.0%. While we recognize the quality of the real estate, it’s simply outside our geographical sandbox. Our focus remains on the rest of BC—the cities and towns where our lending model provides the most value.