Best for
Metrotown is Burnaby's de-facto downtown and one of the densest residential districts in the entire Metro Vancouver region. Built around Metropolis at Metrotown — the largest shopping centre in Western Canada, with 450+ stores — the neighbourhood has grown vertically for the last two decades into a small forest of 30+ residential towers clustered around Metrotown SkyTrain station. Today it has three Expo Line stations (Patterson, Metrotown, Royal Oak) within walking distance and is directly served by the 130, 49, and Imperial buses to every corner of the city.
The appeal is the combination of transit, retail, and price. You can live in a new-construction one-bedroom condo for around $2,200–2,700 per month (noticeably less than the equivalent in downtown Vancouver), walk to Metropolis for groceries, restaurants, and a theatre, be on the SkyTrain to downtown Vancouver in 25 minutes, and have Central Park — 80 hectares of mature urban forest — directly on your doorstep. For newcomers working downtown who don't want to pay Yaletown prices, it's often the single best value in the region.
The trade-off is that Metrotown has a very specific character — it's urban, glossy, shopping-mall-oriented, and much more East Asian in its retail and restaurant mix than downtown Vancouver. Crystal Mall, just north of Metropolis, is effectively a second Chinese-focused shopping centre with a well-known food court. If you love that energy, Metrotown is perfect. If you want heritage character or a quiet neighbourhood main street, this is not it.
Services in Burnaby
Local price ranges for services — we don't yet break these down to the neighbourhood level, but prices in Burnaby are consistent across most inner areas.