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Neighbourhood guide

Brentwood (Burnaby) — A Buyer’s Guide

Last reviewed by Bronson Job PREC, REALTOR®Sources: City of Burnaby OCP, Brentwood Town Centre Plan (1996, updated 2008/2014/2018), School District 41 Burnaby, TransLink Millennium Line, REBGV Brentwood Park, Province of BC (Bill 47 TOD), Shape PropertiesCC BY 4.0How we verify

A note from me: I’m Bronson Job, a REALTOR® (PREC) with Royal LePage Ben Gauer & Associates, so I earn a commission when I help someone buy or sell. I write these guides to be genuinely useful — general information, not advice on your specific situation — and I take no payment from any third party named in them. How I verify.

Brentwood is one of the four principal town centres of the City of Burnaby, and the home of one of the largest single transit-oriented redevelopments in Western Canada — The Amazing Brentwood, roughly 6,000-plus units across 11 towers on 28 acres. It carries three Millennium Line SkyTrain stations along the Lougheed corridor, the Capitol Hill view-corridor detached tier on its northern slope, and the Burnaby North Secondary catchment with the International Baccalaureate (IB) and French Immersion offered as application streams. The neighbourhood is really two markets — the high-rise condo core and the detached tiers at the edges — and this guide walks both, the five sub-areas, the schools, and the transit. It pairs with the Brentwood area page and the Metrotown area page (the other major Burnaby town centre).

The map

The five sub-areas, mapped

Brentwood is five named pieces, each with its own SkyTrain walking distance and its own tier positioning. The Amazing Brentwood is the concrete high-rise condo heart. Brentwood Park is the older RS-1 west-of-Willingdon detached pocket. Brentwood Heights is the established Hastings + Holdom detached band. Capitol Hill is the view-corridor crown. Willingdon Heights is the gentrifying south-of-Lougheed transition zone.

Map loading…
Satellite view of the Brentwood frame — the Amazing Brentwood cluster anchors the Lougheed + Willingdon core, with Capitol Hill rising north of Hastings toward the 280-metre summit.

The Amazing Brentwood (core)

49.270°N, 123.000°W

The Amazing Brentwood core sits at the intersection of Lougheed Highway and Willingdon Avenue, directly atop and around Brentwood Town Centre SkyTrain Station. Shape Properties' 28-acre redevelopment of the former Brentwood Town Centre Mall is built out across 11 residential towers (28–63 storeys) with a mixed-use retail podium spanning ~1.1 million sq ft of GLA — the densest single TOD redevelopment in Western Canada. Inventory is concentrated in 1-bedroom + den (550–700 sq ft) and 2-bedroom (800–1,050 sq ft) condo product, with sub-penthouse and penthouse tiers in the upper bands. Strata fees are notably above the Burnaby condo average (concrete high-rise + amenity floor + retail integration), and depreciation-report and contingency-reserve diligence is meaningful given the phased completion timeline.

Brentwood Park (residential, west of Willingdon)

49.275°N, 123.005°W

Brentwood Park is the older residential pocket west of Willingdon Avenue, organised around Brentwood Park Elementary School and the namesake Brentwood Park itself. Lot mix is mostly RS-1 detached on conventional ~6,000–7,500 sq ft lots, with pockets of RM-2/RM-3 low-rise apartment along the Halifax / Willingdon edges. Built character is mid-1950s through 1970s, with a meaningful share of older detached stock that has been renovated, suited, or held for redevelopment optionality. Bill 44 SSMUH eligibility is now layered on the RS-1 inventory under Burnaby's 2024 implementation — relevant for buyers pricing future-density optionality on conventional lots.

Brentwood Heights (Hastings + Holdom)

49.282°N, 122.970°W

Brentwood Heights is the established detached-residential band along the northern edge of the Brentwood Town Centre Plan area, roughly bounded by Hastings Street to the north and Holdom Avenue on the east. Older detached stock (1950s–1970s) on larger lots than the Brentwood Park grid, with several view-of-Burrard-Inlet lots on the highest north-side blocks where the topography rises toward Capitol Hill. Holdom SkyTrain Station (Millennium Line, opened January 5, 2002) sits on the southern edge — bringing rapid-transit walkability to a tier that was historically read as larger-lot suburban. Pricing is structurally pulled higher by the proximity to Capitol Hill view-corridor detached and by the SkyTrain-walking premium; the share of original-condition stock is the underlying redevelopment thesis.

Capitol Hill (north — view corridor)

49.290°N, 122.970°W

Capitol Hill is the larger-lot, view-corridor detached tier north of Hastings Street that crowns the Brentwood neighbourhood. Topography climbs steeply from Hastings to the summit at roughly 280 metres elevation, with panoramic Burrard Inlet, North Shore Mountains, and Lower Mainland views from the northern half of the slope. Lot zoning is RS-3 / RS-1 with deeper-than-standard lots on many blocks. Confederation Park (City of Burnaby) sits along the north and east face — a large district park with view amenity that anchors family demand. The view-corridor is protected by City of Burnaby view-cone overlays — meaning the structurally low elevation of permitted heights on the Hastings frontage south of Capitol Hill helps preserve the view tier's pricing premium for as long as the overlay holds.

Willingdon Heights (south — gentrifying)

49.265°N, 123.010°W

Willingdon Heights is the residential band south of Lougheed Highway and west of Willingdon Avenue, transitioning between The Amazing Brentwood core to the north and the older Burnaby grid to the south. RS-1 detached on smaller original lots (~5,000–6,500 sq ft) with a meaningful share of duplex / suited / rental-conversion stock — rising rents and the spillover demand from The Amazing Brentwood condo build-out are gentrifying the older inventory. RM-2/RM-3 apartment-zoned blocks along the Lougheed corridor are receiving redevelopment applications at a steady pace as Burnaby works through its Brentwood Town Centre Plan refresh and the layered Bill 47 transit-oriented density framework around Brentwood Town Centre Station.

Catchments

Burnaby North Secondary + IB + French Immersion

Most Brentwood addresses feed Burnaby North Secondary (751 Hammarskjold Drive) for grades 8–12 — one of the largest secondary schools in the province with roughly 1,800–2,000 students, French Immersion programming, and the IB Diploma Programme. The IB and French Immersion programmes are application-based streams, not pure catchment — open to SD #41 (Burnaby) residents by application, with Burnaby North as one of the district’s designated IB host schools. Families relying on IB or FI access need to confirm the application timeline and current eligibility before treating either as guaranteed.

Some Brentwood addresses on the eastern edge near Holdom may fall into the Alpha Secondary catchment instead, and some northern Capitol Hill addresses may have feeder variations. Burnaby periodically reviews catchment boundaries; verify the live SD 41 catchment map for the specific address before paying a school-catchment premium.

For elementary, the feeders depend on the specific sub-area: Brentwood Park Elementary (1455 Delta Avenue) for the residential west-of-Willingdon pocket; Westridge Elementary (with French Immersion) for parts of the eastern band; Aubrey Elementary (1850 Aubrey Street) on the Hastings corridor; and Capitol Hill Elementary (361 N Holdom Avenue) for Capitol Hill addresses above Hastings. The elementary catchment is meaningfully more granular than the secondary catchment in Brentwood — pull the live SD 41 map for the specific address.

Transit

The Millennium Line — three stations along Lougheed

Brentwood is served by three TransLink Millennium Line SkyTrain stations, all of which opened on January 5, 2002: Brentwood Town Centre Station (Lougheed Highway and Willingdon Avenue, the spine of The Amazing Brentwood), Holdom Station (Lougheed and Holdom), and Gilmore Station (Lougheed and Gilmore). Headways are typically 3–5 minutes during peak and 6–8 minutes off-peak.

Travel time from Brentwood Town Centre Station to Commercial-Broadway (the Millennium / Expo Line interchange) is approximately 12 minutes. Total door-to-door from a Brentwood address with a short walk to station to downtown stations (Stadium-Chinatown, Granville, Burrard, Waterfront) is typically 25–35 minutes during peak — meaningfully faster than most Burnaby town centres outside of Metrotown, and competitive with east-side Vancouver neighbourhoods that are nominally closer to downtown by car.

Per BC TOD literature, the 800-metre walkable radius around each station is where corridor price premiums concentrate. The Amazing Brentwood inventory is essentially built atop Brentwood Town Centre Station; Brentwood Park, Brentwood Heights, and Willingdon Heights mostly fall inside the walkable radius of one of the three stations. Capitol Hill, climbing toward the 280-metre summit north of Hastings, is meaningfully outside the walkable radius from any of the three — the SkyTrain access for Capitol Hill addresses is typically via a feeder bus or a drive to Park & Ride.

The 800-metre radius, in 2 sentences

BC TOD literature identifies roughly 800 metres (~10 minutes walking) as the radius inside which TOD price premiums concentrate. For Brentwood, that radius from one of the three Millennium Line stations covers The Amazing Brentwood core fully, Brentwood Park substantially, Brentwood Heights and Willingdon Heights partially, and is generally outside the radius for most of Capitol Hill above Hastings.

Buyers paying a SkyTrain-corridor premium need to confirm the actual walking distance from the specific address to the closest of the three stations — not the driving distance, not the “close to SkyTrain” marketing language — before paying for the premium. Capitol Hill is a different decision: paying for the view-corridor and the larger lot, not for the SkyTrain.

The TOD core

The Amazing Brentwood — 28 acres, 11 towers, 6,000+ units

The Amazing Brentwood is Shape Properties’ redevelopment of the former Brentwood Town Centre Mall — a single-developer, single-site mixed-use TOD project at Lougheed Highway and Willingdon Avenue, directly atop Brentwood Town Centre SkyTrain Station. The completed build-out includes 11 residential towers ranging from 28 to 63 storeys, a retail podium of approximately 1.1 million sq ft of gross leasable area, public plazas and public realm investments, and ~6,000+ residential units in total across the 28-acre footprint.

By unit-count and concentration, this is one of the largest single transit-oriented redevelopments in Western Canada. The phased buildout has been in progress since the original Brentwood Town Centre Plan was adopted in 1996, with most of the residential delivery occurring between 2018 and 2025+. The retail podium hosts a major-anchor mix (grocery, drug store, financial services) plus dining, fitness, and discretionary retail at a scale uncommon in Burnaby outside of Metrotown.

For a buyer, the practical point is the scale. A single-developer, single-site delivery of ~6,000+ units into one transit station’s walkable radius is a large amount of new condo supply for the local market to absorb, and the Brentwood condo benchmark moves with that absorption. Set against it are the structural draws — direct SkyTrain access, the deepest amenity build in any Burnaby town centre, and Bill 47 Transit-Oriented Areas density frameworks. Pull the live REBGV Brentwood Park benchmark and recent solds at offer time; in a concentrated-supply market like this one the benchmark shifts more than in a stable-supply neighbourhood.

Capitol Hill

The view-corridor detached tier

Capitol Hill is the larger-lot, view-corridor detached tier crowning the Brentwood neighbourhood north of Hastings Street. Topography climbs from Hastings to a summit at roughly 280 metres elevation, with panoramic Burrard Inlet, North Shore Mountains, and Lower Mainland views from the northern half of the slope. Lot zoning is RS-3 / RS-1 with deeper-than-standard lots on many blocks, and built character ranges from 1950s–1970s original detached through extensive renovation and selective new-build.

The view-corridor is protected by City of Burnaby view-cone overlays — structural restrictions on the height of permitted development on the Hastings frontage south of Capitol Hill that preserve the sight lines from the protected viewing positions. Practically, this means redevelopment density along Hastings is constrained where the view-cone overlay applies, which structurally limits the supply that could otherwise compete with the Capitol Hill view tier. As long as the view-cone overlay holds, Capitol Hill detached is structurally scarce on the view side of the trade.

Confederation Park (City of Burnaby) sits along the north and east face of Capitol Hill — a large district park with view amenity, off-leash dog area, sports fields, and direct trail access to the slope. This park anchor is part of the family-buyer demand for Capitol Hill that buyers need to weigh against the meaningful price premium versus comparable detached inventory in Brentwood Park or Brentwood Heights below the hill.

Town Centre Plan

From 1996 to today, and the Bill 47 overlay

Brentwood is governed by the City of Burnaby Official Community Plan plus the Brentwood Town Centre Plan — originally adopted in 1996 and updated in 2008, 2014, and 2018 to expand the TOD upzoning footprint along the Lougheed and Willingdon corridors. The plan tiers density from the highest-rise core (RM-5 / CD high-rise around Brentwood Town Centre Station) through transitioning RM-3 / RM-4 mid-density along Lougheed, to RS-1 cross-streets in the residential pockets.

For Brentwood specifically, the BC Bill 47 (Transit-Oriented Areas Act, in force 2024) framework layers Provincial transit-oriented density tiers around Brentwood Town Centre Station (a designated rapid-transit station), Holdom, and Gilmore. Tier 1 typically covers parcels within ~200 metres of a station (highest density / highest FAR / tallest height eligibility), Tier 2 covers ~400 metres (mid-density), and Tier 3 covers ~800 metres (lowest of the three but still above baseline single-family zoning). The exact density and height entitlements vary by station class and by municipal designation. Verify the current Bill 47 designation against the live Province TOD page and the City of Burnaby OCP layer for the specific parcel before pricing any redevelopment optionality — the legislation is still being operationalised at the municipal level.

See the cross-link to /glossary/transit-oriented-development-areas for the glossary entry and the /guides/transit-oriented-development-bc deep-dive guide.

Bill 44 SSMUH

Burnaby’s 2024 implementation

BC’s Bill 44 Small-Scale Multi-Unit Housing (SSMUH) framework, in force across the province through 2024, requires municipalities to permit up to four units (or six units near frequent-transit) on most lots historically zoned for single-family detached housing. The City of Burnaby implemented its SSMUH framework in 2024, layering additional permitted unit counts onto the RS-1 / RS-3 / R1 inventory across Brentwood Park, Brentwood Heights, Capitol Hill, and Willingdon Heights.

For Brentwood specifically, SSMUH is most consequential on the Brentwood Park RS-1 grid (conventional ~6,000–7,500 sq ft lots, where 4-unit multiplex is typically permitted under SSMUH), and the Willingdon Heights RS-1 grid (smaller original lots). On Capitol Hill, the larger RS-3 lots may be eligible for higher unit counts but the slope topography and the view-cone overlay constrain the practical massing of multiplex redevelopment. On parcels close to a Millennium Line station, the Bill 47 TOD density framework typically supersedes baseline SSMUH and layers in higher densities.

See the Bill 44 / SSMUH guide for the deeper provincial-framework explainer. Burnaby’s implementation specifics — particularly the parking-minimum carve-outs, servicing-capacity caveats, and the interaction with view-cone overlays — are still being operationalised; verify against the live City of Burnaby zoning bylaw before pricing redevelopment optionality.

Worked example

Brentwood 2-bedroom condo at $950K

Setup

2-bedroom 850 sq ft concrete high-rise condo, mid-floor, Amazing Brentwood tower, walking distance to Brentwood Town Centre SkyTrain Station, 1 parking + 1 storage. Purchase price: $950,000. Down payment: 20% = $190,000. Financed: $760,000.

Property Transfer Tax (no exemptions)

Base PTT (BC bracket schedule): 1% × $200,000 + 2% × $750,000 = $2,000 + $15,000 = $17,000. Run the live numbers through the PTT calculator for the specific scenario.

First-Time Home Buyer (FTHB) exemption

The FTHB exemption is threshold-limited and may apply at this price point depending on current legislation. Confirm the current threshold against the BC government Property Transfer Tax page. If applicable, partial relief may flow through; if past the partial-exemption ceiling, no relief.

Newly Built Home exemption (presale or new-build path)

The Newly Built Home exemption applies to qualifying new-construction purchases up to specified thresholds — full exemption up to a lower threshold, partial above, and zero past an upper threshold. For a $950K new-construction Amazing Brentwood condo, partial exemption may apply depending on the current threshold structure. Verify the current thresholds against current legislation; do not underwrite a full exemption without reading the live legislation. If the buyer is purchasing presale, the exemption is calculated at completion using the rules in force at completion — not at contract date.

Strata fee carrying cost

Concrete high-rise + amenity floor + retail integration produces strata fees notably above the Burnaby condo average. Pull the actual fee disclosure (Form B), the depreciation report, and the contingency reserve fund balance for the specific tower, and model the all-in monthly carrying cost (mortgage P&I + strata + property tax + insurance + utilities) rather than reading the listing strata fee as a line item.

Closing-day cash

Down payment + PTT + legal + adjustments + GST (on new construction; 5% federal, with the new housing rebate phasing out between $350K and $450K) is the all-in number that rarely shows in the listing math. Run a complete number through the closing-day cash calculator.

Property mix

Condo-dominant with detached at the edges

Brentwood’s inventory mix is structurally condo-dominant — the Amazing Brentwood buildout, the older 1980s–1990s tower stock along Lougheed, and the RM-2 / RM-3 low-rise apartment along the corridor edges combine to make condo product the majority share of transactable inventory. The detached share is concentrated in three pockets: Brentwood Park west of Willingdon, Brentwood Heights along the Hastings + Holdom band, and Capitol Hill north of Hastings. Townhouse product is meaningfully thinner than in suburban-Burnaby town centres like Edmonds or in the South Slope — Brentwood’s planning grid concentrated multifamily product into high-rise rather than mid-rise.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) sub-area Brentwood Park covers most of the neighbourhood. Pull the live REBGV benchmark for apartment / condo and detached product fresh at offer time — sub-area benchmarks shift more meaningfully in concentrated supply markets like Brentwood than in stable-supply markets, and the Amazing Brentwood absorption is a structural variable that affects the read.

Culture and amenity

Brentwood today, beyond the towers

The neighbourhood’s cultural fabric has shifted meaningfully along the Lougheed TOD corridor as The Amazing Brentwood has built out. Brentwood today carries significant Korean-Canadian, Chinese-Canadian, and Iranian-Canadian populations, with a large young-professional rental market driven by the tower buildout. The older detached pockets — Brentwood Park west of Willingdon, Brentwood Heights along Hastings + Holdom — retain established Italian-Canadian and Eastern European communities from the original mid-century build-out, with restaurants, delis, and community institutions reflecting that older history.

Notable amenity beyond The Amazing Brentwood retail podium: Brentwood Park (large neighbourhood park anchoring the namesake elementary), Confederation Park (City of Burnaby, large district park with view amenity along Capitol Hill’s north and east face), and direct cycle-network access along the Adanac and BC Parkway corridors. Highway 1 access is via Willingdon Avenue and Gilmore Avenue interchanges. The Hastings Street corridor on the northern edge connects directly to East Vancouver’s Hastings strip.

Market snapshot · May 2026

Brentwood · HPI Benchmark

Benchmark price

$1.10M

Month over month

+0.2%

Year over year

-6.2%

Sales (month)

1,995

Active listings

14,755

Months of inventory

8.3

Fraser Valley Real Estate Board / Greater Vancouver REALTORS composite Home Price Index (HPI) — the industry-standard measure of typical home value, adjusted for property mix. Soft supply (buyers’ territory).

See the Brentwood HPI chart on Market Insights

Source: Fraser Valley Real Estate Board · Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver. Composite (all property types). HPI benchmarks are aggregate measures — specific properties may transact above or below.

Frequently asked questions

  • What schools serve Brentwood addresses?
    Most Brentwood addresses feed Burnaby North Secondary (751 Hammarskjold Drive) for grades 8–12 — French Immersion programming and the IB Diploma Programme are application-based streams. Elementary feeders depend on the sub-area: Brentwood Park Elementary (west of Willingdon), Westridge Elementary, Aubrey Elementary (Hastings corridor), and Capitol Hill Elementary. Eastern-edge addresses near Holdom may fall into Alpha Secondary catchment. Verify the live SD 41 catchment map for the specific address.
  • What is The Amazing Brentwood?
    Shape Properties 28-acre mixed-use redevelopment of the former Brentwood Town Centre Mall, at Lougheed Highway and Willingdon Avenue, directly atop Brentwood Town Centre SkyTrain Station. The completed build-out includes 11 residential towers (28–63 storeys), a retail podium of ~1.1 million sq ft GLA, and ~6,000+ residential units across the 28-acre footprint. One of the largest single TOD redevelopments in Western Canada, with most residential delivery occurring 2018–2025+.
  • Is Brentwood served by SkyTrain?
    Yes. Three Millennium Line stations (all opened January 5, 2002): Brentwood Town Centre (Lougheed and Willingdon), Holdom (Lougheed and Holdom), and Gilmore (Lougheed and Gilmore). Headways 3–5 minutes peak, 6–8 minutes off-peak. Travel time from Brentwood Town Centre Station to Commercial-Broadway is roughly 12 minutes; downtown via the Expo Line transfer is 25–30 minutes door-to-door for most Brentwood addresses.
  • Are there detached homes in Brentwood?
    Yes. The detached share is in three bands. Brentwood Park (west of Willingdon) is RS-1 detached on conventional 6,000–7,500 sq ft lots. Brentwood Heights (Hastings + Holdom) is older 1950s–1970s detached on larger lots with some Burrard Inlet view pockets. Capitol Hill (north of Hastings) is the largest-lot, view-corridor RS-3 / RS-1 tier protected by City of Burnaby view-cone overlays.
  • What is the commute to downtown Vancouver?
    By transit: SkyTrain from Brentwood Town Centre to Commercial-Broadway is ~12 minutes, with the Expo Line transfer adding 13–18 minutes to downtown stations. Total door-to-door from a Brentwood address with a short walk to station is 25–35 minutes during peak — meaningfully faster than most Burnaby town centres outside Metrotown. By car, Highway 1 access via Willingdon and Gilmore puts most Brentwood addresses 25–40 minutes from downtown.
  • Does the Newly Built Home exemption apply to Brentwood presales?
    It depends on the price at completion and the buyer eligibility. The BC Newly Built Home PTT exemption applies to qualifying new-construction purchases up to specified thresholds — full exemption to a lower threshold, partial above, and zero past an upper threshold. Verify the current thresholds against the BC government PTT page. For presale buyers, the exemption is calculated at completion using the rules in force at completion — not at contract date.

What to read next

Sources: BC Government
Verified sources (3)· re-verified 2026-05-09Click to expand

Every claim on this page is sourced to a primary government, regulator, or industry-association URL. We re-verify quarterly; the verification dates below show when each source was last confirmed against the live government page.

Fact ID: bc.tod.transit_oriented_development · v1View in Codex →
Spot an issue? Report an inaccuracy · How we verify
Sources: BC Government · Other
Verified sources (2)· re-verified 2026-05-08Click to expand

Every claim on this page is sourced to a primary government, regulator, or industry-association URL. We re-verify quarterly; the verification dates below show when each source was last confirmed against the live government page.

Fact ID: bc.bill44_2023_ssmuh · v1View in Codex →
Spot an issue? Report an inaccuracy · How we verify
Bronson Job PREC, REALTOR® at Royal LePage Ben Gauer & Associates — Langley + Fraser Valley + Greater Vancouver
Bronson Job PRECREALTOR® · Royal LePage Ben Gauer & AssociatesGVR Member #6015742 · FVREB Member #FJOBBR · Royal LePage Top 35 Under 35 (2021) · Royal LePage Red Diamond Award