Concrete vs wood frame: the reserve myth

The median wood-frame strata in BC holds about $4,200 per unit in its contingency reserve fund. The median concrete building holds about $4,000. Hold building size still and concrete pulls slightly ahead. The real difference is what the money is for.

You will hear both versions of the myth. Concrete towers have elevators, pumps and a parkade, so they must need more in reserve. Wood-frame buildings have roofs, decks and siding that wear out faster, so they must. We took the latest contingency reserve fund balance in 2,000+ samples drawn from our pool of BC strata reviews, most of them from 2025 and 2026 statements, divided it by the corporation's unit count, and split the buildings by the construction type recorded for them. About two BC strata corporations in three are wood frame; nearly all of the rest are concrete.

The same money per door, in buildings of very different shape

The median wood-frame strata holds about $4,200 per unit, with the middle half of buildings between about $2,700 and $6,200. The median concrete strata holds about $4,000, with the middle half between about $2,400 and $6,100. The two distributions sit almost on top of each other, and the shares agree: roughly one building in four of either type holds $6,000 or more per unit, and about one in six holds under $2,000.

The buildings themselves could hardly be more different. The median wood-frame corporation has about 60 units on three storeys and was completed in the late 1990s. The median concrete corporation has about 155 units on 19 storeys and dates from the mid-2000s. So the whole funds are nothing alike: about $240,000 at the median wood-frame strata against about $590,000 at the median concrete one. Per door, they land in the same place.

Hold size still and concrete edges ahead

The per-door balance falls as buildings get bigger, in both materials. Under 50 units the median wood-frame strata holds about $4,700 per unit and the median concrete one about $5,300. At 50 to 99 units it is $4,200 against $5,300; at 100 to 199 units, $3,500 against $4,300; at 200 units or more, $2,600 against $3,000. Inside every size band, concrete holds more per door, by about 10% to 25%.

That is how two things can be true at once. About three concrete corporations in four have 100 units or more; only about one wood-frame corporation in four does. Concrete buildings are concentrated in the size bands where everyone holds less per door, which pulls the concrete median down to meet the wood-frame one. Compare like with like and the concrete building is slightly better funded per unit. The age of the stock does not change the picture: within each era of construction, from before 1990 to 2016 and later, the two materials hold within a few hundred dollars of each other, and both drop sharply for the newest buildings.

Contributions: the same dollars, a smaller slice

The latest approved operating budgets show why the balances match. The median wood-frame strata contributes about $810 per unit per year to its reserve and the median concrete strata about $770. Divide each fund by its own contribution and both hold about five years' worth, with the middle half between roughly three and seven years. The difference is the budget the contribution comes out of. The median concrete strata runs on about $6,600 per unit a year, against $5,400 for wood frame, because it carries elevators, mechanical systems, a parkade and often staff. So the reserve contribution is about 15% of the operating budget at the median wood-frame strata and about 12% at the median concrete one. Both sit above the 10% minimum the regulation has required since November 2023. [1]

Concrete buildings put the same dollars into the reserve as wood-frame ones. They just take them out of a bigger budget.

The levies are the same size, for different things

About two corporations in five of either type have approved a special levy since 2023. The median approved levy works out to about $1,000 per unit in wood-frame buildings and about $940 in concrete ones, and the middle half of levies in both run from a few hundred dollars to about $2,500 to $2,700 per door. As whole-building amounts they look different, about $50,000 against $120,000, but that is the unit count again.

What the levies pay for is where the materials part ways. In wood-frame buildings, roofs are the second most common purpose after envelope work, one approved levy in eight. In concrete buildings roofs are one levy in twenty, and elevators, piping and top-ups of the contingency fund take their place. The building envelope leads in both, about one levy in five for wood frame and one in six for concrete.

What wears out, and when

The depreciation report is where the reserve need is actually set, and the component lives inside those reports differ by material in ways the balances do not. Roofs on wood-frame buildings are given about 25 years; on concrete buildings, about 30. Plumbing goes the other way: about 39 years in wood-frame buildings and about 30 in concrete ones, where long risers and recirculation lines fail first. Heating, elevators and fire alarms are all given a few years less in concrete towers, and the envelope gets about 40 years in both. A concrete building is not a cheaper building to keep. Its big bills come from a different list.

The list is getting longer for wood. The BC Building Code has allowed wood-frame residential buildings of five and six storeys since 2009, and encapsulated mass timber is now permitted to 18 storeys. [2] [3] The wood-frame strata of the 2030s will have elevators too.

What to do with this

• If you are buying: the construction type on the listing tells you almost nothing about the reserve. Divide the CRF balance on the Form B by the unit count and read it next to the building's size band in the chart above.

• If you are on council: the depreciation report, not the material, sets the target. Every strata with five or more lots needs one on a five-year cycle, with the first deadline in July 2026 for Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and the Capital Region. [4]

• If you want your area: reserve fund benchmarks by neighbourhood are on StrataStats.

How we counted. Based on 2,000+ samples drawn from our pool of BC strata reviews. Figures come from the financial statements, approved operating budgets, depreciation reports and meeting minutes in those samples, mostly 2025 and 2026. Each corporation's latest contingency reserve fund balance is divided by its total unit count. Construction type is the type recorded for the corporation's buildings; corporations with more than one type are left out. Annual contributions come from the reserve transfer in the corporation's latest approved whole-building operating budget. Component life is the expected replacement year minus the installed year where both are recorded. Figures are medians and the middle half (p25 to p75), rounded to two significant figures. Groups with too few buildings to summarise are not shown. No building is identified. If you use these figures, a link back to this post is appreciated.

Further reading

1. The contingency reserve fund (CRF) in strata corporations, Province of British Columbia

2. History of British Columbia Building Regulations, Province of British Columbia (PDF)

3. B.C. builders can now use mass timber in taller buildings, BC Gov News, 10 April 2024

4. Strata depreciation report requirements, Province of British Columbia