Over 19,000 new rental homes now in progress in Burnaby: report

Construction cranes for new towers in the Brentwood area of Burnaby. (EB Adventure Photography/Shutterstock)

Burnaby is experiencing some momentum in building much-needed new secured purpose-built rental housing.

According to a new City of Burnaby staff report to City Council, as of the end of 2023, there are over 19,000 new secured purpose-built rental homes in various stages of the development process, including 10,029 market rental homes and 9,140 below-market rental homes.

This includes 1,621 units that are completed, 1,417 units that are under construction, 2,609 units that are in the final adoption stage, and 13,522 units that are in the midst of the rezoning process.

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Currently, for below-market rental homes, 558 units are completed, 1,019 units are under construction, 1,271 units are in final adoption, and 6,292 units are in the middle of the rezoning process. Conversely, for market rental housing, 1,063 units are now built, 398 units are under construction, 1,338 units are in final adoption, and 7,230 units are within the rezoning process.

The municipal government’s Rental Use Zoning Policy (RUZP) is the primary driver of the new rental homes for both market and below-market. The RUZP requires new multi-family residential developments achieved through rezoning to include affordable rental units into their projects — either as replacement rental units or inclusionary rental units.

For the proportion of rental homes that are below-market rental, 1,508 units are on City-owned lands, 917 units are led by a non-profit organization and/or other level of government, 2,443 units are one-for-one replacement units as a result of redevelopment, 3,637 units are required inclusionary units or “Burnaby Affordable Units,” and 635 units are optional inclusionary units.

Since City staff’s last rental housing update in April 2023, a total of 349 rental homes (both market and below-market) have reached completion, and another 1,019 non-market units have entered the construction phase.

All of the above figures do not factor in secured purpose-built rental housing proposed within various “Master Plan” projects. According to City staff, there are now over 6,000 non-market rental units and 8,000 market rental units proposed in these neighbourhood-sized developments.

For instance, Shape Properties is currently in the process of drastically revising its 2013-approved master plan for the 28-acre The Amazing Brentwood mall development, with the developer now seeking to add 4.7 million sq ft of building floor area, including 2.36 million sq ft of secured purpose-built rental housing.

The revised concept’s additional residential uses follow the municipal government’s RUZP for new and replacement rental units, which was a policy that came into effect in 2019 and is being applied to even redevelopment concepts that were previously approved by the City.

2013-approved master plan for The Amazing Brentwood:

the amazing brentwood burnaby 2013 concept

2013 approved master plan concept for The Amazing Brentwood. (Shape Properties)

Revised 2024 master plan for The Amazing Brentwood:

the amazing brentwood master plan concept burnaby 2024 3

January 2024 revised preliminary master plan concept for The Amazing Brentwood. (Shape Properties)

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