Manufactured Homes include Modular and Mobile Homes. They are typically built in a factory off-site and then delivered and assembled on-site. View the BC MLS ® Listings for Manufactured Homes with Land for sale and find the one that fit your needs.
The Canadian Standards Association (CSA) label provides the standard specifications for the Modular & Mobile homes. All Manufactured Homes in British Columbia must be registered with the Manufactured Homes Registry before they can be sold. In BC, a Manufactured Home must have an approval mark affixed by either an accredited certification or inspection body to verify that the home meets electrical safety standards. A list of accredited inspection bodies is provided on the Technical Safety BC website
BC Registries maintains a record of the registered owner, location and description for manufactured homes in BC. Non-residential exemptions are required when a manufactured home is destroyed (e.g. in a fire), dismantled or used for non-residential purposes (e.g. storage or office space). Please sign up as a VIP member (specify ‘Manufactured Home with Land’ in the comments) and we’ll email you new BC Manufactured with Land Properties MLS ® Listings the moment they hit the market!
This is the quickest way to receive up-to-date information on New Listings & Price changes! You will be the first to know when a home that fits your preferences hits the market.
Many first time buyers are completely unaware of the existence of manufactured homes. In this article, we’ll explore what manufactured homes are, and the trade offs between purchasing a manufactured home versus a site-built home. When buying a home, it’s important to be informed about your options!
Manufactured homes are built in a factory. That’s it. Contrast a conventionally built home and a manufactured home:
Manufactured homes are available today at a wide variety of price points, ranging from very inexpensive, economy homes to high end homes that you probably won’t be able to differentiate from site built homes. Manufactured homes are often classified as:
Mobile homes are most commonly placed on a rented site in a mobile home park. Mobile homes are intended to provide inexpensive housing, and renting the site minimizes the up-front cost.
Modular homes, on the other hand, will typically be deployed onto owned sites, using permanent foundations. It can be very difficult to tell the difference between a modular home and a conventionally built home!
Used manufactured homes may only be offered for sale in British Columbia if they bear a certification label from an agency accredited by the Standards Council of Canada or a Silver Label issued by Technical Safety BC. If a certification label cannot be found, the homeowner must obtain a Silver Label, which requires electrical inspection and a Technical Safety BC inspection.
Municipal permits will also be required to connect the manufactured home to the electrical infrastructure and gas supply.
Mobile homes are a lower cost option to buying a conventionally built home. Furthermore, there are mobile home parks where you can rent a site, avoiding the cost of land. Mobile homes can open the door to home ownership to those who might otherwise never qualify to own their own home.
Mobile homes also cost less per square foot than conventionally built homes, allowing you to get more space for your money.
Mobile homes are, as the name implies, capable of being moved. It’s not particularly cheap, but it is doable, and this can be an advantage in some situations.
Depreciation is a major disadvantage of mobile homes. Like a new car, depreciation begins as soon as the mobile home leaves the factory. The reason is that mobile homes are considered to be your personal property, not “real property”. Real property is defined as land, plus improvements that are permanently attached to it. Since mobile homes do not have full foundations, they are not seen as permanently
attached to the land – and in any case, mobile home owners commonly do not own the land.
Financing mobile homes is also much more expensive because they are considered personal property. Banks will not treat a loan to purchase a mobile home as a mortgage; rather, they will consider it a personal loan or a “chattel loan”, which carry much higher interest rates.
Mobile homes are more susceptible to damage from natural disasters, such as earthquakes or hurricanes, because they are placed on a temporary foundation.
Manufactured homes can be broken down into mobile homes and modular homes.
Mobile homes are inexpensive, and can open the doors to home ownership to many people who might otherwise be forever stuck renting. However, they do have a number of disadvantages: higher financing cost, depreciation, and a higher risk of damage during natural disasters. Modular homes can be of very high quality, and provide flexible floor plans rivalling a conventionally built house. However, modular homes require far less labour on the building site, which can be a huge advantage in remote or difficult to access locations. Once installed, they are more or less indistinguishable from a conventionally built house.
Is a manufactured home with land right for you? On this page the MLS Listings are all Manufactured Homes with Land.
Check out our BC Properties for Sale pages. They are a great way to get to know different communities. Begin with the photo presentations highlighting each community. Then review detailed information and real estate Market statistics specific to that community.
Each city page also allows you to quickly access the BC Listings in that area, broken out by property type (houses for sale, duplex for sale, townhouses for sale, condos for sale and land for sale).