Short answer: Burnaby apartment and strata towers with a shared lobby, gym or laundry room can usually add a vending machine or smart cooler at $0 to the building. The operator covers the machine, install, stocking, service and removal; the building provides the spot, an outlet and the power, roughly $15–20 a month for a fridge-sized unit. In a rental building, the property manager decides. In a strata, council acts for the strata corporation, and a significant change to common property needs a 3/4 owners' vote under BC's Strata Property Act.
This page is for rental property managers, strata managers and council members in Burnaby, British Columbia, especially in the high-rise town centres around Metrotown, Brentwood, Lougheed and Edmonds.
Burnaby's towers are growing fast
The City plans its highest-density housing around four town centres. Its projections show Metrotown's housing units growing from about 13,300 in 2011 to 31,800 by 2041, and Brentwood's from 5,400 to 26,300. Many of these are towers of 200+ units with concierge desks, gyms and amenity rooms: the kind of common space operators look for.
Burnaby apartment and strata buildings: what the data shows
| Source | What it shows |
|---|---|
| VendFynd Lead Finder, January 2026 | 44 apartment and residential building listings with a Burnaby address within 5 km of the city centre (of 1,078 listings across 15 site types) |
These are counts of map listings or licence records, not a survey, and they don't show how many businesses want a machine. In the January 2026 run, 8 of 52 results were left out as off-type listings.
Unit count on its own isn't the test. A vendor that sells tools to operators puts the usual threshold at 150-200+ units with a common area, but what matters is how many residents pass the spot each day.
Rental or strata: who decides
| Building | Who approves | What to check first |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose-built rental | Owner or property manager | Insurance, and any lease terms about common areas |
| Strata, small change | Council, usually through the strata manager | Bylaws and rules on common property and commercial use |
| Strata, significant change | Owners, by a 3/4 vote at a general meeting (s.71) | Whether a machine counts as "significant" in your building |
| Mixed-use tower | Often the strata for residential floors and a separate owner for commercial | Which parcel the lobby belongs to |
For the full strata picture, see our guide to vending machines for apartment buildings and strata in BC.
The practical details in a tower
- Fobs and concierge. Agree how the operator gets in to restock, and who holds any fob.
- Noise and heat. Refrigerated machines hum and give off heat. Keep them away from suites and out of small closets.
- Payment. Card and phone-pay readers avoid cash complaints at 11 p.m.
- Product choice. Residents' needs differ from an office: late-night snacks, water, basics. Ask the operator what sells in similar buildings.
Bringing it to council
A short written proposal helps: the spot, the machine size, power, restocking access, insurance, the term and a removal clause. Council can then decide whether it's within its authority or needs to go to a general meeting.
Residents need one number to call
In a tower, the complaints about an empty or broken machine land on the concierge or the property manager. A machine is only as good as whoever services it, so pick the arrangement with the clearest answer to "who fixes it?" With VendFynd, that answer is us: residents' problems and product requests come to one contact, we reply within 1 business day and chase the operator, and if it isn't fixed promptly we swap the operator or remove the machine at no cost.
How it works
Start with the site check: the address, unit count and common areas, then a 5-minute look at traffic, space and the outlet. We match an operator that serves Burnaby, and council or the owner sees our published host terms before anything is voted on or installed. Placement is month to month, with 30 days' notice and removal at no cost to the building, and residents choose the menu.