Why are there almost no condos in Walnut Grove or Fort Langley?
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Direct answer
Two reasons compound here: both places were built out before apartments were the answer, and the Township pointed its apartment density somewhere else. Start with the zoning history. Walnut Grove built out mostly between 1985 and 2005, and Fort Langley grew around a village core founded in 1827 that now sits under Heritage Conservation Area rules. Both were planned around detached houses and townhouses rather than apartment blocks, and the Township of Langley pointed apartment density at Willoughby and Langley City Centre instead. The second is servicing. Fort Langley water and sanitary lines were not sized for high-density loads, and the heritage overlay makes a four-storey building very hard to permit. Walnut Grove has no SkyTrain station and no bus exchange, so the transit-oriented areas the province created under Bill 47 in 2023 do not reach it. Apartments are a minority here, but they are not missing, and the usual advice about them is backwards. Roughly one active Walnut Grove listing in six is an apartment, and they are the cheapest way in: in the current listings they run around the low $500,000s against a townhouse median near $850,000. A buyer working under $700,000 has more apartments to choose from in Walnut Grove than townhouses, not fewer. Fort Langley is the opposite case, where the few apartments that exist price alongside the detached market rather than below it. Bill 44 added provincial rights to as many as four units on a single-family lot, but those produce ground-oriented multiplexes, not apartment buildings. For a wider apartment selection, Willoughby has purpose-built product in Yorkson and Carvolth, and Langley City Centre is building around the future SkyTrain stations.
Primary sources
- Local government housing initiatives (Bill 44 — small-scale multi-unit housing) · BC Government · retrieved
- B.C.'s Transit-Oriented Development Program (Bill 47) · BC Government · retrieved
Backed by Fact Bank entries
- Bill 44 (2023) — SSMUH (Small-Scale Multi-Unit Housing) — NOT to be confused with Bill 44 (2022) Building and Strata Statutes Amendment Act.
- Bill 47 (2023) — Transit-Oriented Development Areas Act — Companion legislation to Bill 44 (see bc.
Verified sources (7)· re-verified Oct 13, 2026Show sources
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.
- Legislative Assembly of British Columbiaretrieved Oct 13, 2026· published Nov 30, 2023Hansard, 30 November 2023, p.m. (Issue 375): Royal Assent to Bills 44 and 47https://lims.leg.bc.ca/hdms/file/Debates/42nd4th/20231130pm-Hansard-n375.html
Primary source for the Royal Assent date of both bills. Corrected 2026-10-13: the site had said 2023-12-07, which is the date regulations were made / Order in Council 673/2023 brought the main provisions of Bill 44 into force. Not added to history[]: the old value was wrong, not superseded.
- BC Lawsretrieved Oct 13, 2026· published Dec 7, 2023Order in Council 673/2023: brings sections of the Housing Statutes (Residential Development) Amendment Act, 2023 (Bill 44) into force effective 7 December 2023https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/oic/oic_cur/0673_2023
- BC Governmentretrieved Aug 10, 2026Small-scale multi-unit housing (SSMUH)https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/housing-tenancy/local-governments-and-housing/housing-initiatives/smale-scale-multi-unit-housing
- BC Governmentretrieved Aug 10, 2026Small-Scale, Multi-Unit Housing — Provincial Policy Manual & Site Standardshttps://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/housing-and-tenancy/tools-for-government/local-governments-and-housing/ssmuh_provincial_policy_manual.pdf
- BC Lawsretrieved Aug 10, 2026· published Nov 27, 2025Bill 25 — 2025: Housing and Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act, 2025https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/bills/billsprevious/1st43rd:gov25-1
- BC Governmentretrieved Aug 10, 2026Bill 25 SSMUH Policy Bulletinhttps://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/housing-and-tenancy/tools-for-government/local-governments-and-housing/bill_25_ssmuh_policy_bulletin.pdf
- Otherretrieved Aug 10, 2026Small-Scale, Multi-Unit Housing — Township of Langleyhttps://www.tol.ca/en/the-township/small-scale-multi-unit-housing.aspx
bc.bill44_2023_ssmuh · v3View in Codex →Verified sources (5)· re-verified Oct 13, 2026Show sources
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.
- Legislative Assembly of British Columbiaretrieved Oct 13, 2026· published Nov 30, 2023Hansard, 30 November 2023, p.m. (Issue 375): Royal Assent to Bills 44 and 47https://lims.leg.bc.ca/hdms/file/Debates/42nd4th/20231130pm-Hansard-n375.html
Primary source for the Royal Assent date of both bills. Corrected 2026-10-13: the site had said 2023-12-07, which is the date regulations were made / Order in Council 673/2023 brought the main provisions of Bill 44 into force. Not added to history[]: the old value was wrong, not superseded.
- BC Governmentretrieved Sep 24, 2026Local Government Transit-Oriented Areas Regulation, BC Reg 263/2023https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/263_2023
The governing instrument for the tier radii. bclaws.gov.bc.ca is blocked by this environment's egress policy, so the 2026-08-09 correction was made on converging secondary summaries of this regulation rather than by reading it directly. Confirm the tier 4 / tier 5 density minimums here when the host is reachable.
- BC Governmentretrieved Aug 2, 2026Provincial Policy Manual: Transit-Oriented Areashttps://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/housing-and-tenancy/tools-for-government/local-governments-and-housing/toa_provincial_policy_manual.pdf
- BC Governmentretrieved Aug 2, 2026Local government housing initiativeshttps://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/housing-tenancy/local-governments-and-housing/housing-initiatives
- BC Governmentretrieved Aug 2, 2026· published Nov 8, 2023B.C.'s Transit-Oriented Development Programhttps://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/transportation-projects/transit-oriented-development
bc.tod.transit_oriented_development · v3View in Codex →Related questions
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