The single most common question we get from buyers looking at Sunrise Village is also the one that's easiest to misunderstand at first: what exactly is the monthly land-lease fee, and what does it actually cover? Here's the straight answer.
You Own the Home, Not the Land
At Sunrise Village, buyers own their home outright but lease the land it sits on, under a structure governed by BC's Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act. The land itself is 100% privately owned by Sunrise Village's operator — there's no strata corporation, no Form B, and no shared ownership of anything. You're purchasing the home only.
One Fee, Not Two
Unlike a condo, where you'd typically pay a mortgage plus a separate strata fee, Sunrise Village has a single recurring community charge: the land-lease fee, sometimes called pad rent. There's no separate strata fee and no HOA fee stacked on top of it — some listing sites use that kind of terminology out of habit, but it doesn't apply here. It's rent for the land your home sits on, paid directly to Sunrise Village's operator and reviewed periodically under the tenancy legislation that governs the community. Like a strata fee, it doesn't build you equity — it's simply the ongoing cost of leasing the site.
What to Confirm Before You Offer
- The current monthly amount for the specific site, since this can vary by lot within the community.
- When it was last increased, and how increases are typically communicated and applied.
- What's bundled in versus billed separately — RV storage, for example, is an optional add-on with its own fee, separate from the land lease itself.
- Any pending increase that may already be scheduled but not yet in effect at the time you're viewing.
- What park approval involves for your specific offer — every purchase here is subject to the buyer meeting with management and signing the community's Rules & Regulations before the subject is removed.
Why this matters for financing: some lenders treat land-lease properties differently than freehold homes. If you're financing the purchase, confirm early in the process that your specific lender is comfortable with a land-lease structure, rather than discovering a complication midway through your subject-removal period.
Why Buyers Still Choose Sunrise Village
Despite the added step of understanding the lease structure, land-lease communities like Sunrise Village remain genuinely popular — the homes themselves are typically more affordable than an equivalent freehold property, and the community here is well-established with a real, active clubhouse culture rather than being a purely transactional living arrangement.
We can pull the exact lease terms and current fee for any active listing before you book a showing.