Why a townhome fits so many households in the Fraser Valley

A townhome is a compromise, and that is the reason it works. You get your own front door, usually a garage, usually some outdoor space, and stairs instead of neighbours above and below you. You give up a yard you can do anything with, and you accept that some decisions about your home are made by a group. Buyers who are happy in a townhome are the ones who chose that trade on purpose. Buyers who are unhappy are usually the ones who thought they were buying a small house.

The space and convenience trade

Compare a townhome against the two things it sits between.

Against an apartment, you gain floor area, an entry that is yours, direct access to a garage or a driveway, and outdoor space you can step onto without an elevator. You can bring a bike, a stroller or a bag of soil in without crossing a lobby. You give up single-level living, and you take on stairs.

Against a detached house, you give up land and the freedom that comes with it. You cannot build a shop in the back, park a trailer, or repaint the exterior the colour you want. In exchange, you are not responsible for the roof, the siding, the drainage or the landscaping on your own, and you generally pay less for the same number of bedrooms in the same area. That is the whole bargain: less control, less upkeep, less cost.

Who it fits, and why

Young families are the obvious group. A townhome buys the third bedroom, the extra bathroom and a patch of grass at a price that a detached home in the same neighbourhood usually does not. The complex often has other children in it, which matters more to a five-year-old than square footage does.

Downsizers are the group people underestimate. Somebody leaving a house with a big lot is often not looking for less living space but for less maintenance. A townhome keeps the door, the garage and the room to host, and takes away the ladder, the gutters and the lawn. The stairs are the question to think hard about, because a plan that is easy at sixty is a different plan at eighty.

Then there are the people in between. A couple working from home who needs a real second room. Someone with tools who needs a garage. A household that wants a dog and a door to let it out of. None of them need an acre, and all of them need more than an apartment gives.

What a townhome actually is in British Columbia

This is the part most buyers never ask about, and it changes what you own.

Most townhomes here are strata lots in a strata corporation, the same legal structure as a condo. Your ownership stops at the boundary of your strata lot, and the buildings, the roofs, the roads and the landscaping are common property maintained by the strata. Your patio or yard is often limited common property: yours to use, not automatically yours to alter or to repair. You pay strata fees, you follow bylaws, and a council makes decisions.

Some complexes are bare land stratas. There the lot itself is the strata lot, and the home standing on it is generally yours to maintain, including the roof and the exterior. Fees are usually lower, because the strata is looking after roads, services and common areas rather than your building. That also means the big expenses on your own building are yours to plan for.

A small number of row homes are freehold, with no strata at all, sometimes with a shared maintenance agreement registered on title. Those behave much more like a house.

The label on a listing does not always tell you which one you are looking at. Check the title and the strata plan, and if the answer changes your decision, have a lawyer or notary confirm what you are buying before you remove subjects.

The trade-offs, said plainly

You will sometimes hear neighbours through a shared wall, and the older the complex the more likely you notice it.

You will not be able to do whatever you want outside. Bylaws typically govern the exterior, the patio, the parking and the pets, and alterations need approval.

You will pay strata fees, and they will rise over time. You may face a special levy for a roof, a building envelope or a road, funded by all the owners.

You will climb stairs several times a day, and you will have a smaller yard than the photo suggests.

And you will not be alone with a repair bill, you will not spend a Saturday on the roof, and you will usually be closer to schools and shops than the equivalent house.

How I would decide

I ask a buyer to name the two things they would not give up. If one of them is a workshop, a large garden, a suite or a trailer, a townhome is the wrong shape and we should look at a house. If the two things are a garage and a private door, a townhome usually wins on every other measure.

Then I check the legal structure before we go far, because a bare land strata and a standard strata are different obligations for the same style of home. I read the bylaws and the minutes with the same care I would in an apartment building, because a townhome complex is a strata, and a roof or a road replacement lands on the owners the same way.

Thinking about buying or selling in the Fraser Valley? Message me and we will go through your options.