Coquitlam West

Coquitlam West, generally known as Burquitlam, is the southwest corner of the city against the Burnaby boundary, and it has changed more in the last decade than any other part of Coquitlam. The reason is Burquitlam Station on the Millennium Line: it gives this pocket the strongest transit position in the city for anyone commuting toward Burnaby or downtown Vancouver.

The result is a neighbourhood in mid-transformation. Older detached homes and walk-up apartment buildings sit alongside a wave of new towers, and the streetscape you buy into today is not necessarily the one you will live in for the next decade.

The housing

A genuine mix, and the most condominium-weighted part of Coquitlam outside the Town Centre. Older post-war detached homes on standard lots, aging low-rise walk-ups that often represent the most attainable entry to the area, and new concrete and wood-frame towers close to the station. The Bettie Allard YMCA added roughly 55,000 square feet of public amenity to the area, including an indoor pool and fitness centre.

Why the planning framework matters here

Coquitlam has designated land within 800 metres of SkyTrain stations as a Transit-Oriented Area and removed residential parking requirements inside those areas. The Burquitlam-Lougheed Neighbourhood Plan, adopted in 2017, sets out where and how density lands. Separately, a large redevelopment of the Burquitlam Plaza site on Clarke Road has been proposed at well over two thousand homes.

For a buyer this is not background reading. Whether a given detached house sits inside or outside that 800-metre band materially affects its long-run future, and whether the low-rise beside you stays put.

What to check before you buy here

• Whether the property is inside a Transit-Oriented Area. This is the single most consequential question in Burquitlam, and it is a matter of public record rather than opinion.
• What is approved next door. Views, light and quiet are all in play here. Check active applications on the surrounding blocks.
• Depreciation reports on older low-rise. Much of the walk-up stock is at the age where envelope, plumbing and roof work comes due. Read the report and two years of minutes.
• Poly-B plumbing. Grey polybutylene pipe went into Lower Mainland homes built roughly between 1978 and 1995. It degrades from the inside against chloramines in Metro Vancouver treated water, usually with no visible warning, and insurers now price or decline for it. Confirm whether it is present and whether it has been replaced.
• Parking reality. Parking minimums have been removed near stations. Confirm what a specific building actually provides rather than assuming.

Thinking about buying or selling in Coquitlam West or Burquitlam?

Kristy Mattiazzo works throughout Coquitlam and the Tri-Cities. Get in touch to talk through whether this is the right pocket for you, or to find out what your home here is worth in the current market.

For the full picture of how Kristy works with buyers and sellers across the city — her process, her staging background and the questions she gets asked most — see her Coquitlam Realtor page.