Coquitlam

Coquitlam is the largest of the three Tri-Cities municipalities, running from the Fraser River in the south to the forested slopes of Burke Mountain in the north. That north-to-south spread is the single most useful thing to understand about the city, because Coquitlam is not one market. A 1960s rancher on a deep lot in Central Coquitlam, a 1990s executive house on a sloped Westwood Plateau cul-de-sac, and a five-year-old three-storey home on Burke Mountain are three genuinely different decisions, with different price points, different maintenance profiles and different commutes.

Read the listings above alongside the area notes below. Two homes at the same asking price in different parts of Coquitlam can behave very differently over the ten years you own them.

The areas within Coquitlam

Coquitlam Town Centre

The city core around Coquitlam Centre mall, Lafarge Lake, Douglas College and the Evergreen SkyTrain terminus. This is the most vertical part of the city and the most actively redeveloping: concrete high-rise, newer wood-frame mid-rise, and townhouse infill. If you want to live without a car in Coquitlam, this is the realistic place to do it.

Westwood Plateau

The hillside executive neighbourhood above Town Centre, built out from roughly 1989 through the 2000s around a golf course. Larger lots and larger houses than most newer Coquitlam pockets, plus views and a quieter street pattern. It is also a car-dependent neighbourhood and a genuinely sloped one, which matters for drainage, retaining walls and winter driving.

Burke Mountain

Coquitlam newest area, in the far north. Most of the housing stock is under about fifteen years old. The common form is a three-storey home of roughly 1,400 to 1,600 square feet with bedrooms on the top floor, living space on the middle floor, and a tandem garage and entry at grade. Modern construction and good trail access, in exchange for narrower lots, steeper streets and the longest commute in the city.

Central Coquitlam

The established mid-century heart of the city, largely built between the 1960s and the 1990s. The draw here is land: lots are typically deeper and wider than in the newer master-planned areas, which is why this is where you see the most renovation and rebuild activity. Buy here for the lot and the location, and price the house as what it is.

Coquitlam West and Burquitlam

The southwest corner bordering Burnaby, transformed by Burquitlam Station. Older detached homes and walk-up apartments sit alongside a wave of new towers. The strongest transit position in Coquitlam for anyone commuting toward Burnaby or downtown Vancouver, and the most condo-weighted part of the city.

Maillardville

Coquitlam oldest neighbourhood, founded in 1909 as the oldest French-Canadian settlement in Western Canada, and still the part of the city with the most history in its street pattern and architecture. A mix of pre-war and post-war detached homes, older low-rise, and new infill as the area redevelops.

The smaller established pockets

Several long-standing residential areas sit between the larger names above, each with its own character and price level: Ranch Park, Eagle Ridge, Chineside, Harbour Chines, River Springs, New Horizons and Canyon Springs. Most are detached-dominant and were built between the 1960s and the 1990s.

Housing stock, by era

Era is the fastest way to predict what a Coquitlam home will need from you:

• Pre-1950 — concentrated in the Maillardville core. Character and land, but expect to budget for systems.
• 1950s to 1970s — Central Coquitlam, Harbour Chines, Chineside and the older edges of Maillardville. Deep lots, original footprints, and wiring and drainage worth inspecting closely.
• 1980s to 2000s — Westwood Plateau, Eagle Ridge, Canyon Springs and River Springs. Larger family layouts that are now at the age where roofs, plumbing and building envelopes come due.
• 2010 to today — Burke Mountain, plus the towers and townhouses in Town Centre and Burquitlam. Newest systems and best efficiency, at the highest price per square foot.

Detached, strata, and the bare-land strata question

Coquitlam covers the full range, and the ownership form matters as much as the house. Detached ownership dominates Burke Mountain, Westwood Plateau and Central Coquitlam. Townhouse strata is widely spread. High-rise strata is concentrated in Town Centre and Burquitlam.

One thing specific to Coquitlam is worth flagging: parts of Westwood Plateau are bare-land strata. You own the lot rather than an air space parcel, but there is still a strata corporation and still a monthly fee, typically covering private roads, common landscaping and sometimes amenities. It is not a defect, but it does change your monthly carrying cost and your obligations, and it surprises buyers who assumed a detached house meant no strata. On any strata purchase here, read the depreciation report and the last two years of minutes before you remove conditions.

Getting around

The Evergreen Extension of the Millennium Line opened on 2 December 2016 and reshaped the city. Four of its stations serve Coquitlam: Burquitlam, Coquitlam Central, Lincoln, and Lafarge Lake-Douglas. Coquitlam Central is also a West Coast Express station, which gives Fraser Valley-bound and downtown-bound commuters a second rail option at peak hours.

By road the city is served by Highway 1, the Lougheed Highway and the Mary Hill Bypass. The practical caveat is that transit access is very unevenly distributed. Town Centre and Burquitlam are genuinely transit-oriented. Burke Mountain and much of Westwood Plateau are bus-plus-car neighbourhoods, and the difference can be half an hour each way. If commute time is a real constraint for you, test your actual route at your actual departure time before you commit to an area.

What to check before you buy in Coquitlam

These come up often enough in this city that they are worth knowing about before you start viewing:

• Poly-B plumbing. Grey flexible polybutylene pipe was installed widely across the Lower Mainland in homes built roughly between 1978 and 1995, which covers a great deal of Westwood Plateau, Eagle Ridge and Canyon Springs. It degrades from the inside where it meets chloramines in Metro Vancouver treated water, usually with no visible warning, and many insurers now price or decline coverage accordingly. Confirm whether it is present and whether it has been replaced.
• Buried oil tanks. Homes from the pre-1960s era, particularly around Maillardville and older Central Coquitlam, were often oil-heated. A decommissioned or undiscovered tank is an environmental and cost question, not a cosmetic one.
• Slope, drainage and retaining walls. On Westwood Plateau and Burke Mountain, perimeter drains, grading and retaining structures deserve real attention. Water management is the recurring issue on sloped Coquitlam lots.
• Aluminum branch wiring. Common in Canadian homes built in the mid-1960s through mid-1970s and a standing insurer question. Relevant across parts of Central Coquitlam.
• Burke Mountain layout realities. Tandem garages, narrow frontages and three-storey plans suit some households and not others. Walk the stairs before you fall in love with the finishes.
• School catchment capacity. In the fastest-growing parts of the city, catchment does not always mean a seat at the nearest school. Confirm current placement with School District 43 rather than assuming.

Thinking about buying or selling in Coquitlam?

Kristy Mattiazzo works throughout Coquitlam and the Tri-Cities, and the right answer depends on which part of the city fits how you actually live. Get in touch to talk through the areas above, or to find out what your Coquitlam home 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.