The reserve-fund era gap

The median BC strata built in the 1980s or 1990s holds about $4,800 per unit in its contingency reserve fund. The median building completed in 2016 or later holds about $2,100. Most of the gap is time. The rest is the rulebook.

Every BC strata corporation keeps a contingency reserve fund, the CRF, for the expenses that come up less often than once a year: the roof, the elevator, the parkade membrane. Since November 2023 the annual contribution has to be at least 10% of the operating budget. [1] The balance is on the Form B, and buyers read it without much to compare it against. We took the latest 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 sorted the buildings by the year they were built.

Four decades at about $4,500 to $5,000, then a step down

The median BC strata holds about $4,000 per unit, and the middle half of buildings hold between about $2,500 and $6,100. Sort by era and the line is flat for forty years and then drops. Buildings completed before 1980 hold a median of about $4,500 per unit; the 1980s about $5,000; the 1990s and 2000s about $4,800 each; 2010 to 2015 about $3,800. Buildings completed in 2016 or later hold about $2,100, with the middle half between about $1,300 and $3,100. The top of the band for the newest buildings sits below the bottom of the band for the 1980s.

The shares say the same thing. About one building in ten finished before 2016 holds under $2,000 per unit; among buildings finished in 2016 or later, nearly one in two does. About one 1980s, 1990s or 2000s building in three holds $6,000 or more per unit; from 2016 on, about one in thirty.

It is not size, and it is not concrete

New buildings are bigger, so the first suspect is the denominator. The median building from 2016 on has about 120 units against 50 to 60 for buildings from before 2000, and the per-door balance does fall with size, from about $4,800 per unit under 20 units to $2,900 at 200 units or more. So we held size still. Among buildings of 50 to 199 units, the 1990s median is about $4,800, the 2000s about $5,000, and 2016 and later about $2,000. Under 50 units it is $4,900 to $5,700 for every era before 2010 and about $2,400 for 2016 on. At 200 units or more, the 1990s to 2015 sit near $3,600 to $3,700, and 2016 on at about $2,100. The gap is the same inside every size band.

Construction does not explain it either. Wood-frame and concrete buildings hold almost the same per door, about $4,200 and $4,000, and inside each era the two run together: about $4,800 and $4,900 for the 1990s, about $2,100 and $2,500 for 2016 and later. The reserve follows the calendar, not the material.

Why young buildings hold less

A reserve fund is contributions in, minus projects out. The cleanest way to see the time effect is to divide each fund by its own annual contribution from the latest approved budget, which gives the number of years of contributions sitting in the account.

The median BC strata holds about five years of its current contribution, and the middle half hold between about three and seven years. Buildings from the 2000s and from 2010 to 2015 hold about six years; buildings from 2016 on hold about three and a half. That is the calendar: roughly half the gap in dollars is that the fund has not been collecting for long.

The other half is that young buildings put less in. The median contribution in buildings from 2016 on is about $550 per unit per year, about 10% of the operating budget, which is the minimum the regulation now requires. Buildings from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s contribute about $850 to $960 per unit per year, 15% to 17% of their budgets. Three rules set that starting point. The developer writes the first budget and hands over a contribution at the first annual general meeting capped at half a year's estimated operating expenses. [1] The envelope is under warranty for five years and the structure for ten, so the components that push contributions up elsewhere are someone else's bill for a while. [2] And the depreciation report, which is what moves a contribution off the minimum, arrives within two years of the first annual general meeting, or 18 months from July 2027. [3] Until it does, the minimum is the plan.

A building from 1995 has had thirty years of contributions and a roof. A building from 2019 has had six years and a warranty.

The thin fund is also, so far, a less-used fund. Nearly one building in two completed before 1980 has approved a special levy since 2023; for the 1980s to the 2000s it is about two in five; for 2016 on it is fewer than one in three. The projects that empty a reserve are mostly still ahead of the newest stock, which is the argument for reading the era gap as a schedule rather than a shortfall.

What to do with this

• If you are buying: take the CRF balance from the Form B, divide by the unit count, and read it next to the building's era in the chart above. Then read the depreciation report, which says what the fund is for and when.

• If you are on council: the middle half of BC buildings hold three to seven years of their current contribution. A fund at the 10% minimum in a building just out of warranty is on a different clock from one at the minimum in a 1990s building.

• 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 and approved operating budgets in those samples, mostly 2025 and 2026. Each corporation's latest contingency reserve fund balance is divided by its total unit count. Year built is the earliest completion year among the corporation's buildings. Years of contributions held divide the balance by the reserve contribution in the corporation's latest approved whole-building operating budget. 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. Regulatory Bulletin 3: 2-5-10 Home Warranty Insurance, BC Housing

3. Strata depreciation report requirements, Province of British Columbia

4. Strata Property Regulation changes: Form B and contingency reserve fund contributions, BC Financial Services Authority