Buying a Richmond Condo? The Strata Docs Matter as Much as Your Credit.

Richmond's Condo Market: What You're Buying Into

Richmond has a substantial condo inventory spread across very different building vintages, locations, and strata situations. Steveston Village has character buildings with dedicated resident bases and tight resale markets. The Brighouse and Richmond Centre area around the main Canada Line station has a mix of older leasehold buildings and newer freehold high-rises. Capstan Village, Ironwood, and the Oval-area developments are mostly newer construction with different strata dynamics. Bridgeport has mid-density product close to the SkyTrain.

Each of these buildings has its own strata corporation, its own contingency reserve fund, its own depreciation report, and its own set of issues that will determine whether an institutional lender will finance a unit in it. Pre-approval covers your personal qualification — but it doesn't cover the building. We'll look at both.

What Strata Document Review Actually Finds

When you get an accepted offer on a condo, you have a strata document review period. Here's what we're looking at with you:

• Contingency Reserve Fund (CRF) — the strata's savings account for major repairs (roof, elevators, envelope, mechanical systems). Lenders want this adequately funded relative to the depreciation report's recommended schedule. An underfunded CRF means either a special levy is coming or the building is deferring necessary maintenance.
• Depreciation report — the 30-year capital plan showing expected major expenditures. Lenders review this alongside the CRF balance to assess funding adequacy.
• Strata minutes — the last two to three years of AGM and council minutes. This is where you find the real story: what repairs have been deferred, what disputes have occurred, any litigation, problem owners, building envelope concerns.
• Special levies — any approved or pending special assessments that you'll inherit as the new owner.
• Rental restrictions — some strata corporations have bylaws limiting rental units, which matters for your plans and for lender eligibility on certain products.

Leasehold Land in Richmond: Know Before You Buy

Some Richmond condos — particularly around the Brighouse area and a handful of older buildings in the Richmond Centre vicinity — sit on leasehold land rather than freehold. The strata corporation owns the building but leases the land from a landlord (sometimes a municipality, sometimes a private entity).

Leasehold significantly narrows your financing options. Fewer lenders will write mortgages on leasehold strata units. Those who do often require 25-35% down and charge higher rates. The key variable is the remaining lease term — most lenders want at least 20-25 years remaining past the end of your amortization period. A 70-year leasehold with 45 years remaining on a 25-year amortization is fine. A leasehold with 28 years remaining on the same amortization is a problem.

Your real estate agent should flag leasehold status in the listing, but always confirm in the strata documents and the title. We'll tell you which lenders in our panel will consider a specific leasehold property and what the down payment and rate implications are before you commit to an offer.

Can You Buy a Richmond Condo with Less Than 20% Down?

Yes — CMHC insures condo purchases in buildings that meet their eligibility criteria. The building needs to be in reasonable financial and physical condition. Specific strata characteristics can disqualify a unit: very high strata fee delinquency rates, active litigation involving the strata corporation as a party, certain building envelope deficiencies, or a CRF that's severely underfunded.

A pre-approval tells you what you qualify for. A strata review before you waive subjects tells you whether the building qualifies. Get the strata documents early — ideally before you write an offer — so you're not racing against a subject removal deadline to discover a problem.