Short answer: rental buildings in Vancouver and across Metro Vancouver are bigger than most people think. Of the 127,091 purpose-built rental apartment units CMHC counted in the region in October 2025, 54% are in buildings with 50 or more units and 7.7% are in buildings with 200 or more. The 200+ band is also the fastest-growing: up 81% since 2020, from 5,378 to 9,746 units. CMHC doesn't publish building counts, but those 9,746 units mean there are at most 48 rental buildings of 200+ units in the whole region.
This report is for property managers, owners and asset managers sizing a portfolio, and anyone who wants the official numbers on how big Metro Vancouver's rental buildings are. It's built from CMHC's own published tables, which anyone can download.
Units by building size, Metro Vancouver
| Building size | Units, Oct 2020 | Units, Oct 2025 | Change | Share of 2025 units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3–5 units | 1,576 | 1,612 | +2% | 1.3% |
| 6–19 units | 16,019 | 16,203 | +1% | 12.7% |
| 20–49 units | 39,957 | 40,518 | +1% | 31.9% |
| 50–199 units | 50,211 | 59,012 | +18% | 46.4% |
| 200+ units | 5,378 | 9,746 | +81% | 7.7% |
| Total | 113,141 | 127,091 | +12% | 100% |
Purpose-built rental apartment units, Vancouver CMA. Source: CMHC Rental Market Survey, table 2.1.28. VendFynd analysis.
Almost all the growth is in big buildings. The region added 13,950 rental apartment units between 2020 and 2025, and 94% of them (13,169) are in buildings of 50 or more units. The small walk-up and low-rise stock barely changed.
By city
| City | Total units | 50–199 units | 200+ units | Share in 50+ unit buildings | Max. 200+ unit buildings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vancouver | 65,179 | 26,635 | 4,212 | 47% | 21 |
| Burnaby | 11,509 | 4,676 | 1,192 | 51% | 5 |
| New Westminster | 10,614 | 4,561 | 1,397 | 56% | 6 |
| Surrey | 7,959 | 5,263 | 1,282 | 82% | 6 |
| North Vancouver (City) | 7,723 | 3,434 | 225 | 47% | 1 |
| Coquitlam | 4,468 | 2,509 | 677 | 71% | 3 |
| Richmond | 2,998 | 1,961 | suppressed | 65%+ | – |
October 2025. "Max. 200+ unit buildings" is units ÷ 200, rounded down: the true number is that or fewer. CMHC suppresses cells that are too small to publish.
Vancouver has half the region's rental stock, but more of it is older and smaller. Fewer than half of its units are in 50+ unit buildings. Surrey is the opposite: 82% of its rental units are in buildings of 50 or more, and its 200+ band grew from 266 units in 2020 to 1,282 in 2025, nearly fivefold. Richmond has a small purpose-built rental stock for its size (2,998 units), most of it in mid-size buildings.
Big new buildings are still leasing up
| Building size | Vacancy rate, Oct 2025 (Metro Vancouver) | Reliability |
|---|---|---|
| 3–5 units | 1.3% | poor |
| 6–19 units | 1.6% | very good |
| 20–49 units | 2.7% | excellent |
| 50–199 units | 3.7% | excellent |
| 200+ units | 11.5% | poor |
| All | 3.7% | excellent |
CMHC rates the 200+ figure as "use with caution", but the pattern is clear in the city rows too: 18.0% in Burnaby's 200+ unit buildings and 23.9% in New Westminster's, both rated excellent. New towers take months to fill, and amenities are one of the ways owners compete during lease-up.
Social housing: a separate count
CMHC's survey leaves out social and affordable housing. The City of Vancouver's non-market housing inventory fills part of that gap for Vancouver: 581 completed projects with 31,834 units, a median of 41 units each. Only 24 have 150 or more units, and 11 of those 24 house mostly seniors.
What this means for a lobby machine
Operators usually look for about 150–200 units and a shared common area before a residential machine makes sense; it's the line our own site-fit scorer uses (150+ units for full marks on size, 80+ for partial). On CMHC's numbers, the buildings that clear that line are a minority by count but hold a large share of renters, and they're concentrated in the town centres and the newest towers. A building still leasing up is a good time to add a machine or smart cooler: the spot and outlet go in before residents form habits.
For how approvals work, see our guide to vending machines in BC apartment and strata buildings, and for what residents actually buy, what to stock in a condo machine. A machine is $0 to the building: the operator covers the machine, install, stocking, service and removal, and you provide the spot and an outlet (about $15–20 a month in power). See if your building qualifies.
About this data
- Rental Market Survey: CMHC surveys privately initiated rental structures with at least 3 rental units, on the market for at least 3 months, in the first 2 weeks of October. Social and affordable housing isn't in the survey frame, and owner-occupied units aren't counted in a building's units. Condos rented out by their owners are a separate market and not counted here.
- Structure size: apartment structures only (rows/townhouses excluded), banded by number of rental units. CMHC publishes units per band, not the number of buildings; our "maximum buildings" column is a ceiling (units ÷ 200).
- Reliability: CMHC grades vacancy estimates from a (excellent) to d (poor); we show the grade. Suppressed cells (**) are left blank.
- Non-market housing: City of Vancouver open data, modified 2026-09-01; units per project summed from the published unit-type columns. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Vancouver. No building or operator is named.
Sources
- CMHC, Universe by Structure Size (Apartment only) by Census Subdivision, Vancouver CMA, October 2025 (and October 2020): https://www03.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/hmip-pimh/en/TableMapChart/Table?TableId=2.1.28.4&GeographyId=2410&GeographyTypeId=3&DisplayAs=Table&BreakdownGeographyTypeId=4
- CMHC, Universe by Structure Size by Zone, Vancouver CMA, October 2025: https://www03.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/hmip-pimh/en/TableMapChart/Table?TableId=2.1.28.3&GeographyId=2410&GeographyTypeId=3&DisplayAs=Table&BreakdownGeographyTypeId=7
- CMHC, Vacancy Rates by Structure Size by Census Subdivision, Vancouver CMA, October 2025: https://www03.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/hmip-pimh/en/TableMapChart/Table?TableId=2.1.3.4&GeographyId=2410&GeographyTypeId=3&DisplayAs=Table&BreakdownGeographyTypeId=4
- CMHC, Rental Market Survey definitions and methodology: https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/professionals/housing-markets-data-and-research/housing-research/surveys/methods/methodology-rental-market-survey
- City of Vancouver, Non-market housing (open data): https://opendata.vancouver.ca/explore/dataset/non-market-housing/
- Open Government Licence – Vancouver: https://opendata.vancouver.ca/pages/licence/