Choosing where to open a new company in Burnaby

Start with how your buyer finds and uses you

Before looking at any listing, answer three questions: does your customer come to you, do you go to them, or do you never meet? The answer decides which of Burnaby's very different areas makes sense.

• They come to you, often and on impulse: cafés, quick-service food, convenience retail, some personal services. You need foot traffic and visibility.
• They come to you, by appointment: clinics, studios, tutoring, salons, professional offices. You need accessibility, parking or transit, and a good online presence more than a busy corner.
• You go to them: cleaners, trades, mobile services, many consultants. Your location is a base; your service area matters more.
• You never meet: online sellers, software, remote B2B services. Your location matters for licensing and cost, not for customers.

Write your answer down. It filters the options more than anything else.

Compare Burnaby's area types

Burnaby's community plans group the city into Town Centres, urban villages, residential multi-family areas, mixed-use employment areas and parks. Each suits different launches.

Town Centres: Metrotown, Brentwood, Edmonds, Lougheed

Dense, transit-served, mixed shopping, offices and towers. Strong for walk-in businesses whose market check shows enough buyers within walking distance. Expect higher rent and more competitors, and plan for customers who look you up on their phones before they walk in.

Urban villages: the Heights, Royal Oak, Capitol Hill and others

High-street scale, lower rent, more neighbourly. Good for appointment-based and neighbourhood businesses that can become known locally. Partnerships with nearby businesses and real local photos on your Google profile carry more weight here than broad advertising.

Residential areas: home-based launches

Much of Burnaby is residential, and many companies start from a home office. The City's business licence page sets home-business rules, which as of October 2026 include no outward sign of business use, no outside storage of materials, staff limited to people who live at the address, and no more than one customer and one customer vehicle on site at a time. Those rules suit consultants, online sellers and mobile services, and rule out busy home studios.

Mixed-use and employment areas: Big Bend, Lake City, Discovery Parks

Industrial, flex and office space, often near major roads. Right for suppliers, light industrial firms, technology companies and B2B services. Walk-in traffic is low, so marketing relies on targeted outreach and a credible website. Our areas page covers each district in more detail.

Do the rent arithmetic

Rent should be a deliberate share of the revenue you can realistically expect, not whatever the listing says. A simple test:

1. Estimate monthly revenue at a realistic level in month six, not a hopeful one.
2. Decide what share of revenue your business can spend on occupancy. Your accountant can help you set a sensible figure for your industry.
3. Multiply. That is your rent ceiling, including any extra costs the lease passes on to you.

Example. A new physiotherapy clinic expects $28,000 a month in revenue by month six. If the owners decide occupancy shouldn't exceed 12% of revenue, the ceiling is $3,360 a month. A Town Centre unit at $5,200 fails the test unless the market check shows revenue much higher than planned; a village unit at $3,100 passes.

Run the same test on a home base: the rent is close to zero, but count what the rules prevent you from doing. If they cap you at one client at a time and you need two treatment rooms, the cheap option isn't really available.

Check zoning, permits and extra requirements

Confirm the location works legally before you sign. The City advises checking the Zoning Bylaw for your exact use and says it can't process a licence for a property with open building permits. Its licensing office can be called for guidance, and its page notes extra environmental requirements for some business types, including automotive and landscaping businesses.

Practical sequence:

1. Shortlist two or three properties.
2. Ask the City about permitted use at each address.
3. Ask whether any building permits are open.
4. Ask your lawyer to review the lease before signing, especially renewal, personal liability and fit-out terms.
5. Only then sign, and add the date to your setup roadmap.

Consider how the location shows up online

Your location changes how you appear in local search. A storefront can show its address on Google and appear to people nearby. A business that serves customers at their homes or offices should, under Google's guidelines for representing your business, hide its address and show a service area instead.

That makes the choice practical: a storefront in Brentwood competes in the map results around Brentwood, while a home-based mobile business competes across the service area it sets. Neither is better; they need different marketing. Our launch website and Google listing service sets this up correctly from the start.

Think about the neighbours and the city line

Burnaby borders Vancouver, New Westminster, Coquitlam and Port Moody, and many customers cross those lines without noticing. A launch near Lougheed draws from Coquitlam; one near Edmonds or Highgate draws from New Westminster; one in the Heights draws from East Vancouver. Your market check should count buyers on both sides of the line.

For eligible mobile and trade businesses, the City describes an inter-municipal business licence add-on covering several of these cities, which the City listed at $300 for 12 months as of October 2026. Ask the City whether you qualify.

A one-page location scorecard

Score each option from 1 to 5 on:

Anything scoring 1 on legal fit is out, however good the rest looks. Of the remainder, the highest total usually wins. If two options tie, choose the one with more flexibility; a new company's plans change.

When to get help

If you are torn between options, a short launch plan and market check can count buyers near each one and test the rent against realistic revenue. For the overall order of steps, read the Burnaby launch sequence guide.