I recently sold a home in Killarney here in Vancouver, and it was a leasehold property. If you follow the market at all, you've probably seen the word "leasehold" pop up next to a price that looks surprisingly low, and wondered what the catch was. I learned a lot working through this sale, so I wanted to share a few things in plain language.
Let's start with the basics. Most homes people buy are freehold. That means you own the home and the land it sits on, full stop. Leasehold is different. You own the home, but you don't own the land underneath it. Instead, you lease that land from someone else for a set period of time.
In the case of this Killarney home, the land is leased from the City of Vancouver. That detail matters. A lease held by the city is a very different thing from a lease held by a private party, and buyers tend to feel more comfortable knowing who the landlord is.
This particular property was also a bareland strata. That's a term that throws a lot of people. In a bareland strata, the strata plan divides the land itself rather than the buildings on it. So you get some of the shared structure of a strata community, but the setup is tied to the ground the homes sit on rather than the walls and floors.
The lease on this home runs over 50 years. That length of time is a big part of the conversation with any leasehold buyer. A longer remaining term generally gives people more confidence, and it can affect how a lender looks at the property too. The number of years left on the lease is one of the first things I'd want anyone to understand before falling for a place.
So why do people buy leasehold at all? Value. That's the honest answer. Because you're not paying for the land, the purchase price is often lower than a comparable freehold home. For some buyers, that's the difference between owning in a neighbourhood they love and being priced out of it entirely. Killarney is a real, lived-in part of Vancouver, and leasehold can be a door into it.
There are trade-offs, and I always walk buyers through them. There's usually a lease payment on top of your other costs. The remaining term matters when it comes time to sell again or to get financing. And you'll want to read the lease terms carefully, because they spell out what happens at renewal and what your rights and obligations are along the way.
My biggest takeaway from this sale is that leasehold isn't better or worse than freehold. It's just different, and it suits some people beautifully and others not at all. The buyers who do well with it are the ones who take the time to understand exactly what they're buying before they sign.
If you're curious about leasehold in Killarney or anywhere in Vancouver, I'm always happy to sit down and explain how it works for your situation. There's a lot of detail behind these arrangements, and having someone walk you through it makes a real difference.
Every leasehold property has its own lease, its own terms, and its own numbers, so treat this as a starting point rather than the whole story.