Commercial Tenant Improvements in Vancouver

Vancouver has its own building code

Every other municipality in Metro Vancouver applies the BC Building Code. Vancouver does not. Under the Vancouver Charter the City adopts its own Vancouver Building By-law — based on the BC code, but with local variations the City sets itself.

The current edition took effect in September 2025. If you are working from advice, a drawing set or a consultant who has been operating in Burnaby or Surrey, this is the first thing to check: the requirements are close, and they are not identical.

The Tenant Improvement Program, if you qualify

Vancouver runs a dedicated fast stream for interior renovations called TIPs. It is worth knowing about because the City publishes a target for it — an initial review within five to ten business days — and it exempts qualifying projects from needing a new development permit.

The eligibility is narrower than most people expect:

• Office tenants only, in a commercial office building that is on the City’s published TIPs list
• Buildings generally qualify if the original building permit was applied for after January 2007
• Excluded: changes in major occupancy, assembly uses that increase occupant load or affect exiting, work to kitchens and washrooms, mezzanines, and most major renovations

So a law firm reconfiguring its floor may well qualify. A restaurant, a clinic or anything changing its use will not. Vancouver also runs a Field Review process for small projects and a Certified Professional stream where construction can start earlier in stages.

Change of use is a development permit question

In Vancouver, "development" includes changing the use of a building — not just construction. Whether your use is outright or conditional in the zone decides how the application runs, and that is set out in the district schedule for your specific zone.

A conditional use can be approved with conditions, or refused. That is a very different risk profile from an outright use, and it is knowable before you sign a lease.

The one that surprises people: first tenant improvement

Vancouver splits energy requirements by whether the space has ever been occupied, not by what the job costs. A suite that has been occupied before is treated as an alteration. A suite that has never been occupied — raw shell space — is treated as new construction for energy purposes.

Taking new shell space feels like the clean option. For energy compliance it is the more demanding one, and it is a genuine budget item rather than a paperwork nuisance.

Trade permits follow the building permit

Electrical and fire sprinkler permits will not be issued until the building permit has been issued. And the contractor pulling them must hold a City of Vancouver or inter-municipal business licence — an out-of-town trade cannot simply apply.

Occupancy is its own step: for new space, major renovations or a change of use you need an occupancy permit, and the City asks for at least three weeks’ notice. Sign-off from Vancouver Coastal Health, Fire and Rescue or the Environmental Protection Office may be part of it.

Work started without a permit

Vancouver charges double the permit fee for work commenced without one, and the City is explicit that the owner pays it — not the contractor who started early. Read the work stop notice article before anyone touches a wall.

Every municipality runs this differently and the details change. The way to find out what your project actually involves in Vancouver is to look at the unit before you commit to it: occupant load, exiting, washroom count, ceiling height, and what the existing mechanical and electrical will support.

We do that as a unit feasibility check, and act as the owner's agent on the permit application afterwards, so the city communication and the drawings sit in one place. A registered architect reviews the design for compliance with the building code and the local bylaw, and provides sign and seal where the project requires it.