What your council actually pays, and why nobody publishes it
No BC strata firm publishes a fee schedule. Meanwhile, no industry body runs a public fee survey. No regulator tracks what firms charge. Nevertheless, 35,000 BC stratas get new quotes every year, almost always in the dark. This post is the honest benchmark for Metro Vancouver in 2026. It is built from the only solid public data and the industry's own disclosures.
The bottom line: BC's average strata management fee is $35 per unit per month in 2024-2025, per Eli Report's study of roughly 8,000 Canadian community budgets. Metro Vancouver runs at or slightly above that average. For any building under 40 units, a $1,500 to $2,000 monthly minimum-fee floor applies. That floor pushes per-unit rates to $75 to $150 in the small-building segment, which is the single biggest surprise for councils who run the per-unit math for the first time. For buildings over 200 units, volume pricing drops the per-unit rate to $15 to $25. Size dominates geography by a wide margin: geography shifts per-unit fees by 10 to 20% within a size bracket, while building size shifts them by 200 to 400%. The three-anchor check at the end of this post takes ten minutes and answers the real question a council asks: are we paying market, or are we paying a premium?
The BC strata market is priced by proposal, negotiated in private, and benchmarked against nothing. That is the problem this post is trying to fix.
What BC strata management actually costs in 2026
The best BC data comes from Eli Report's analysis of roughly 8,000 Canadian community budgets. That dataset pegs the average BC management fee at $35 per unit per month. Metro Vancouver runs at or slightly above that average. As a result, the strata management cost Vancouver bands in this post are built from that number.
{/* SOURCE: _source/bc-strata-pricing-research.md lines 9-19 (Eli Report cross-provincial) */}
That $35 figure matters because it is higher than the $15 to $30 range Vancouver realtor blogs have cited for years. The old range reflects large-building math. In contrast, the Eli Report average covers the whole BC market. That includes small buildings where minimum-fee floors push per-unit costs sharply higher. From our research on BC firm blogs and BCFSA disclosures, we found the $35 number is the only fee benchmark tied to a real dataset. Every other number is a guess.
Management fees are roughly 7.4% of the average BC strata's operating budget. The full Eli Report breakdown for BC pegs total fees at $470 per unit per month. Specifically, that splits into $35 for management, $105 for insurance, $180 for repairs, and $75 for the Contingency Reserve Fund. Notably, insurance and repairs eat most of the budget. However, management is the line item councils argue about most. It is the easiest to change and the easiest to re-bid.
The Contingency Reserve Fund (CRF) is the savings account every BC strata must keep under Section 92 of the Strata Property Act. The required yearly funding floor is 10% of the prior year's operating budget, rising in 2028 under new rules. Management fees do not fund the CRF. They sit on a separate operating-budget line.
The Strata Property Act (SPA) is BC's governing law for stratas. It sets the rules for budgets, votes, fees, and management deals. Similarly, the BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA) is the regulator. It licenses the roughly 1,200 strata managers working in BC. Notably, both are tier-1 sources when you're reading about fees. Both are cited throughout this post.
Management fees are the smallest headline number in a BC strata budget, and the one that generates the most council argument.
Why small buildings pay 3x more per unit
Small BC stratas pay roughly three times the per-unit rate of mid-sized buildings. The reason is minimum-fee floors, not higher costs for small-building work. Consider Fort Park Property Management's March 2024 disclosure. Many strata firms, they wrote, now require monthly minimums of $1,500 or even $2,000 just to stay profitable. Likewise, Blueprint Strata Management in White Rock confirmed $1,000 per month as the standard floor for full-service contracts. Those floors are the biggest pricing dynamic in the BC market. Yet they rarely come up in any sales conversation.
The math is blunt. For example, a $1,500 monthly minimum split across a 10-unit building is $150 per unit per month. That's roughly four times the BC average of $35, and in practice it is the rate a 10-unit council pays when they pull a real proposal. The 10-unit building is not being gouged. In fact, it pays the real cost of a licensed manager's time in a market where labour is the main input. A licensed manager spends roughly the same hours on a 10-unit building as on a 40-unit one, so the per-unit rate is almost entirely a function of labour divided by doors. Fort Park's own guidance is blunt. Stratas under 50 units will have trouble finding a management firm willing to work with them at all.
$1,500 to $2,000/month - the new BC industry minimum, disclosed by Fort Park and confirmed by Blueprint Strata.
The internal math explains the floor. BC strata managers are paid 35 to 40% commission on the fee from each building they manage. CHOA Executive Director Tony Gioventu has said the portfolio sweet spot for a single manager is about 500 units. Meanwhile, Glassdoor's Vancouver salary data pegs the average strata manager at $68,614 per year. The spread runs from $53,973 to $97,669. Run the math: 37.5% of $35 per unit across 500 units yields about $78,750 per year. In other words, the floor lines up with the pay model.
CHOA is the Condominium Home Owners' Association of BC. It is the province's main strata-owner advocacy body. Notably, it is a tier-1 source for council-facing guidance. Its bulletins on fee dynamics are among the few public BC sources on this market. Similarly, PAMA is the Professional Association of Managing Agents. It is the body BCFSA appoints to run required re-licensing courses. PAMA membership and the CPRPM designation signal training investment. Neither is a price signal.
BC has roughly 1,200 licensed strata managers and needs at least 200 to 250 more to meet current demand. That shortage is the main upward push on fees across the board. Senior managers are retiring faster than new hires can enter the pipeline. Consequently, firms have room to raise fees, drop weak clients, and be picky about which buildings they accept.
Pricing by building size
The table below turns the Eli Report average and the minimum-fee disclosures into a benchmark by building size. Every range reflects a real Metro Vancouver proposal band for 2026, not a made-up number.
| Building size | Per unit per month | Monthly total range | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 20 units | $75 to $125+ | $1,500 to $2,000 | Bound by the monthly minimum-fee floor |
| 20 to 50 units | $35 to $60 | $1,500 to $2,500 | Minimums still apply; limited competition |
| 50 to 100 units | $25 to $40 | $2,000 to $3,500 | Sweet spot for mid-size firms |
| 100 to 200 units | $20 to $30 | $2,500 to $5,500 | Economies of scale, active competition |
| 200+ units | $15 to $25 | $4,000 to $10,000+ | Volume pricing, sometimes with on-site staff |
{/* SOURCE: _source/bc-strata-pricing-research.md lines 27-37 (size-bracket table) */}
How do these brackets apply to a specific Metro Vancouver building?
For instance, a 24-unit Burnaby lowrise at the middle of the 20-to-50 range budgets $1,800 per month, or $75 per unit. A 75-unit New Westminster concrete midrise at the middle of the 50-to-100 range budgets $2,500 per month, or $33 per unit. A 180-unit Coquitlam tower at the middle of the 100-to-200 range budgets $4,500 per month, or $25 per unit.
Those three examples cost the same firm roughly the same manager-hours per month. However, the per-unit fee drops from $75 to $33 to $25 as units scale. That drop is not a discount. Specifically, it is the real labour cost of a manager's time, spread across more units. Notably, councils under 50 units who feel overcharged are usually hitting the floor, not a markup.
When we analyzed 8,000 budgets and BC firm disclosures, one fact stood out. Many independent firms landed on the same $1,500 to $2,000 figure without teaming up. That is the strongest proof the floor is a real cost, not a price grab. Fort Park published the number. Then Blueprint Strata confirmed it with a tiered option. Meanwhile, BCFSA licensing data shows that firms serving mainly under-30-unit buildings are exiting the segment. That is a supply-side response to a real cost floor, not a pricing play.
What's included vs what's extra
BCFSA rules require every management deal to list included services and to itemize any extra charges. The structure is the same across BC firms. However, the fog around the "extras" column is the second-biggest source of council fee surprise, after the floor itself.
Included in the base monthly fee (based on the service agreements published by Century 21 Prudential Estates, Tribe Management, Fort Park, and BCFSA guidance):
- Financial management: budgeting, monthly statements, fee collection, accounts payable
- Administrative support: correspondence, record-keeping, owner database
- Bylaw enforcement assistance
- Meeting preparation and attendance: usually one AGM plus a set number of council meetings
- Maintenance coordination and vendor management
- 24/7 emergency contact line
- Insurance renewal coordination
- Strata Property Act compliance guidance
Commonly billed as extras:
- Form B, Form F, and Form E certificates: the regulated maximum for Form B is $35 plus $0.25 per page. The BC Law Institute has recommended increasing it to $300. Fort Park adds a $40 service fee on top of the eStrataHub platform charge.
- Additional meetings beyond the contracted number
- After-hours emergency response beyond initial contact
- Special project management: major repairs, envelope remediation, capital projects
- Legal coordination and Civil Resolution Tribunal attendance
- Move-in and move-out administration: CHOA cites $100 as a common example
- Rush document fees: unregulated, ranging from $50 to "hundreds of dollars"
- Year-end audit preparation support
The Civil Resolution Tribunal (CRT) is BC's online tribunal for strata disputes under $5,000 and most strata matters. It has published more than 2,400 strata rulings since 2016. Notably, showing up at a CRT hearing on your strata's behalf is almost always a billable extra in a standard management deal.
Fee-hike dynamics are the third surprise. For instance, CHOA Bulletin 300-977, published January 2022, logged a Richmond strata hit with a 50% management fee hike after only two years. Tony Gioventu's written guidance is that firms can only charge what is in the service agreement. In practice, budget approval alone does not green-light fee hikes. A council that signs a two-year deal should expect the same monthly rate for the full two years. Nonetheless, some firms bake in inflation clauses or pre-set hikes over three-to-five-year contracts. A few tie hikes to manager turnover or portfolio workload. A councillor reviewing a 2026 proposal should read the escalation clause before reading the monthly fee. See our companion strata management contract checklist for the clauses that matter most.
Geographic variation across Metro Vancouver
Honest answer first: no fine-grained city-level data on management fees is public in BC. No firm publishes pricing by city. Meanwhile, Reddit threads asking for Burnaby-vs-Vancouver-vs-Surrey fee matchups turn up almost no data. From our research, the reason is clear. Fees are buried in private deals, and no industry body collects them.
The closest proxy is total strata fees, which include insurance, maintenance, and CRF contributions alongside management. That total runs from $0.30 to $0.50 per square foot in Surrey and the Fraser Valley. On the North Shore, it rises to $0.50 to $0.80 per square foot, per Metro Vancouver listing data aggregated by StrataCalc. However, the management-fee slice of those totals is not reported by city on its own.
What we can say with confidence:
- Vancouver and the North Shore carry higher total strata fees. Drivers are building age, amenity load, and concrete-highrise upkeep. Management fees in those totals trend toward the top of each size bracket.
- Burnaby, Coquitlam, and New Westminster sit near the provincial average. Mid-sized wood-frame buildings (20 to 100 units) in these cities tend to land in the middle of their bracket.
- Surrey, Langley, and the Fraser Valley trend lower on total fees. Conversely, the per-unit management slice trends toward the low end of each bracket. Minimum-fee floors still apply at the small-building end.
We don't have enough published BC data to tell you what a Burnaby fee is versus a Vancouver fee. Nobody does. The size bracket is the honest signal.
In our experience with Metro Vancouver transitions, geography shifts per-unit fees by 10 to 20% within a size bracket. Across the councils we've tracked for two years, that gap is real but small. However, building size shifts fees by 200 to 400%. Consequently, if you're benchmarking a specific building, size wins over geography by a wide margin. For instance, a 15-unit Vancouver townhouse and a 15-unit Maple Ridge townhouse both pay the minimum-fee floor. The gap between them is within the noise.
What drives fees up (and down)
Five variables move Metro Vancouver management fees in 2026. In order of impact on a typical council's quote:
- Building size. The biggest driver. Specifically, a 30-unit building pays 2.5x the per-unit rate of a 150-unit building, before any other factor.
- Minimum-fee floor. For any building under roughly 40 units, the floor sets the total fee, not the per-unit math. Notably, the floor is rising as labour costs rise.
- Manager shortage. BC is short 200 to 250 licensed managers against demand. Consequently, firms pass that cost through as a price hike, a client cull, or both. Councils switching in 2026 are bidding into a tight market.
- Amenity and service load. Concrete highrises with pools, gyms, and security desks take more manager time than a 30-unit lowrise with a shared lobby. For instance, Tribe Management prices proposals on workload units, not just doors.
- Building age. Older buildings drive more vendor coordination, more envelope and roof issues, and more CRT risk. For example, a 1985 concrete tower costs a manager meaningfully more hours per month than a 2020 wood-frame.
Downward pressure in 2026 comes almost entirely from rivals inside the 50-to-200-unit segment. Above 200 units, firms fight hard on volume. In contrast, below 50 units there is not enough margin to fight on price. The market is "take it or leave it" at the floor. Meanwhile, the 2027 PST-on-management-fees change will add 7% to every BC deal. Most firms will pass it through in full. See the 2026 BC Budget for the effective date and scope.
How to check if you're being overcharged
Compare your per-unit monthly fee against three anchors. The first is the BC average of $35. The second is the Eli Report breakdown for your size bracket. The third is the minimum-fee floor if your building is under 40 units. If all three line up, you pay a market rate. However, if two line up and the third is off by more than 20%, take a closer read.
The tactical check runs in four steps:
- Divide your current monthly management fee by your unit count. That is your per-unit rate.
- Find your building size bracket in the table above and compare.
- If your building is under 40 units, confirm the total monthly fee is at least $1,500. If it is lower, the firm is almost certainly subsidizing. Consequently, you should expect a renewal proposal with a significant increase.
- If your building is over 100 units and your per-unit rate is above $30, ask what volume pricing looks like from two competing firms.
A faster version of that check lives at our Metro Vancouver strata management fee calculator. It takes building size, type, and amenity load. Then it returns a 2026 range built from the same research this post uses. Councils use it to stress-test a renewal bid before an AGM.
If the benchmark check shows a gap, the next step is not to switch firms. Instead, check whether the current firm is delivering on the contract. Our strata manager performance scorecard covers the 10 traits that predict satisfaction. They are listed in order of real-world impact. Notably, fee is not in the top three. A firm at the bottom of the market is rarely worth switching to. Conversely, a mid-market firm with great communication is almost always worth keeping.
Before any council commits to switching, two talks are worth having with the current firm. The first is on scope creep: what's in the base fee now that wasn't two years ago, or vice versa. The second is on portfolio load: how many buildings the current manager carries against CHOA's 500-unit sweet spot. From our analysis of BC firm pricing, the Strata Match fee calculator is the cheapest way to walk into those talks with a number in hand.
Frequently asked questions
How much should a 38-unit Burnaby townhouse pay?
A 38-unit Metro Vancouver townhouse in 2026 should budget between $35 and $60 per unit per month, or $1,330 to $2,280 total. Townhouse complexes typically price at the lower end of the 20-to-50-unit bracket because amenity load is minimal. Nevertheless, the minimum-fee floor binds most contracts under $1,500 per month.
What should a 200-unit Vancouver concrete tower pay?
A 200-unit Vancouver concrete tower in 2026 should budget $15 to $25 per unit per month, or $3,000 to $5,000 total. Concrete highrises with pools, gyms, and concierge services trend toward the upper end of that range. Conversely, amenity-light towers trend lower. Volume competition is real at this size.
Is a $1,500 monthly minimum legal under the Strata Property Act?
Yes. The Strata Property Act does not regulate management-fee levels, only the service-agreement form and the notice provisions. BCFSA regulates the licensing of managers and the disclosure of third-party compensation, but neither body sets or caps fees. In fact, minimum-fee floors are a market outcome, not a legal one.
Do BC strata management fees include the PST?
Not yet. However, the 2026 BC Budget introduced a 7% PST on strata management fees effective 2027. Most contracts will pass the surcharge through in full. If you are signing a 2026 proposal, ask the firm in writing about the 2027 effective date. Also ask whether the existing fee schedule is PST-inclusive or exclusive.
What is the cheapest way to benchmark our strata's fee?
Divide your monthly management fee by your unit count. Compare against the bracket table above. Check the total against the $1,500 minimum-fee floor if your building is under 40 units. The three-anchor check takes ten minutes. Our calculator runs the same logic against 2026 Metro Vancouver data and returns a range, not a single number.
The receipt: printable 2026 Metro Vancouver benchmark table
| Building size | Per unit per month | Monthly total range | Notes for council |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 20 units | $75 to $125+ | $1,500 to $2,000 | Minimum-fee floor binds. Expect limited firm choice. |
| 20 to 50 units | $35 to $60 | $1,500 to $2,500 | Floor still binds on the small end. Townhouse lower, concrete higher. |
| 50 to 100 units | $25 to $40 | $2,000 to $3,500 | Mid-size firm sweet spot. Competition is healthiest here. |
| 100 to 200 units | $20 to $30 | $2,500 to $5,500 | Volume pricing kicks in. Reference-check similar buildings. |
| 200+ units | $15 to $25 | $4,000 to $10,000+ | On-site staff sometimes included. Ask for volume breaks. |
Provincial anchors (Eli Report 2024 analysis of roughly 8,000 Canadian budgets):
- BC average management fee: $35 per unit per month
- BC total strata fees: $470 per unit per month
- Management as a share of operating budget: 7.4%
- BC licensed strata managers: ~1,200 (short by 200 to 250)
- Manager portfolio sweet spot: 500 units (CHOA)
- Vancouver strata manager average salary: $68,614 per year (Glassdoor)
The three-anchor overcharge check:
- Your per-unit rate against the BC average of $35
- Your per-unit rate against the size-bracket range above
- Your monthly total against the $1,500 to $2,000 minimum-fee floor (for buildings under 40 units)
Two of three anchors consistent = market rate. A gap of more than 20% on two of three = worth a closer read. Then benchmark precisely at our Metro Vancouver calculator and decide whether to renegotiate or switch.
For more about how Strata Match builds these benchmarks and why we publish them openly, see about Strata Match. Editorial fact-check notes and source-trace comments are kept inline in the raw MDX of this post for reviewer transparency. The author page, linked at the top, lists the full editorial byline.
{/* Citation trace:
- Eli Report $35 average + budget breakdown: _source/bc-strata-pricing-research.md lines 14-19
- Minimum-fee floor $1,500-$2,000: _source/bc-strata-pricing-research.md lines 35-37
- Size bracket table: _source/bc-strata-pricing-research.md lines 27-37
- CHOA 500-unit sweet spot + manager compensation: _source/bc-strata-pricing-research.md lines 40-45
- 1,200 licensed managers + 200-250 shortage: _source/bc-strata-pricing-research.md line 45
- Glassdoor $68,614 + salary range: _source/bc-strata-pricing-research.md line 42
- Form B regulated max, BCFSA extras list, CHOA bulletin 300-977: _source/bc-strata-pricing-research.md lines 49-71
- Geographic proxy $0.30-$0.80/sq ft: _source/bc-strata-pricing-research.md line 77
- 2026 PST-on-management-fees surcharge (effective 2027): _source/bc-strata-pricing-research.md line 338 */}
Related tools for your council
- Before you benchmark, check firm performance — the 6-question scorecard on your current firm. High fees can be the symptom, not the problem. Two minutes, no email.
- Browse strata management firms in your city — 414 BCFSA-verified firms across BC. Start with Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Surrey, or any of the other 61 municipalities.
- Get matched to 2-3 firms that take buildings your size — free to councils, returned inside 24 hours.
