Every local area in Vancouver
The City of Vancouver divides itself into 22 official local areas, and the division that actually organizes the city is Ontario Street: West Side prices and East Side prices are different markets that happen to share a downtown. This is a guide to the city one local area at a time: all 22 of them, filterable by side of the city below.
Where to start looking in Vancouver
Most people arrive with one constraint rather than a map. Each line below names one, one place to begin, and the figure behind it, which comes from the guide the line points at.
- The lowest price of entry. An apartment. Metro Vancouver's apartment benchmark was $688,000 in July 2026 against $1,822,900 for a detached house, and Fairview is 94% apartments.
- To commute without a car. Renfrew-Collingwood has five SkyTrain stations serving it. Killarney and Victoria-Fraserview, in South Vancouver, have none inside the local area.
- A detached house and a yard. Dunbar-Southlands is 62% single-detached houses and 78% owner households.
- To be near the water. West Point Grey has three beaches inside the local area: Jericho, Locarno and Spanish Banks.
- The oldest streets. Strathcona was built out as the East End between 1886 and 1920 and is the city's oldest residential neighbourhood.
- To rent rather than buy. Roughly 80% of West End households rent, against a city average of 53%.
Browse dedicated guides for Downtown, West Side, East Side, South Vancouver.
22 communities across the city
Every local area on the site, from the 1880s townsite neighbourhoods to the post-war south slope. Filter by side of the city, then page through the rest.
Arbutus Ridge
Quiet 1920s-to-1950s streets on the ridge between Kitsilano and Kerrisdale, with the Arbutus Greenway running its length.
Downtown
The peninsula core: Yaletown, Coal Harbour, Gastown and the business district stacked into a few walkable square kilometres.
Dunbar-Southlands
Detached-house Vancouver at its leafiest, running from 16th Avenue down to the Fraser flats and the Pacific Spirit trails.
Fairview
The slope between False Creek and Broadway, with VGH at its centre, Granville Island at its foot and a subway being dug underneath.
Grandview-Woodland
Commercial Drive's neighbourhood: Italian espresso bars, a century of protest history and East Van's best-kept Edwardian houses.
Hastings-Sunrise
The port-side east end around the PNE, with a mountain view down every north-south street.
Kensington-Cedar Cottage
Kingsway cuts it on the diagonal: hilly, multilingual and one of the city's more attainable detached-house areas.
Kerrisdale
West Side establishment: 41st Avenue shops, mature boulevards and a community centre that anchors half the area's week.
Killarney
The 1950s southeast corner, with big parks inland and the River District rising on its Fraser shoreline.
Kitsilano
Beach, saltwater pool and the Broadway shops: the neighbourhood that set Vancouver's outdoor-first tone.
Marpole
An old streetcar suburb at the Fraser crossing, now the Canada Line's first stop inside the city.
Mount Pleasant
Main Street's craft-brewery blocks meeting Olympic Village. East Van's fastest-changing neighbourhood.
Photographs: Downtown Vancouver by popejon2 from Paddington, Australia, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons · Vancouver Randall Building 2011 by Canadian2006, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons · Dunbar-Southlands from the air by Canmenwalker, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons · Granville Island Vancouver by Xicotencatl, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons · North Grandview-Woodland by Northwest, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons · Playland from the air by Sébastien Launay, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons · Vancouver Public Library Kensington Branch by Richard Eriksson, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons · Kerrisdale from the air by Canmenwalker, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons · Everett Crowley Park trail by Richard Eriksson from Toronto, Canada, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons · Kits Beach Vancouver by Xicotencatl, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons · Marpole Loop by Northwest, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons · Science World, Vancouver, south view by DXR, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
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Showing 1–12 of 22 communities
The four sides at a glance
The same 114 square kilometres read very differently depending on the side. Housing stock, price and what a main street looks like all divide along lines the official local-area map only hints at.
| Side | Local areas | Character |
|---|---|---|
| Downtown | Downtown, Strathcona, West End | The peninsula plus its two oldest neighbours: the West End's towers, Strathcona's Victorians and the downtown core between them. |
| West Side | Arbutus Ridge, Dunbar-Southlands, Fairview, Kerrisdale, Kitsilano, Oakridge, Shaughnessy, South Cambie, West Point Grey | West of Ontario Street: the beach neighbourhoods, the garden suburbs and the Cambie Corridor's mid-rise construction zone. |
| East Side | Grandview-Woodland, Hastings-Sunrise, Kensington-Cedar Cottage, Mount Pleasant, Renfrew-Collingwood, Riley Park | East of Ontario Street: Commercial Drive, Main Street, the PNE and the most varied housing stock in the city. |
| South Vancouver | Killarney, Marpole, Sunset, Victoria-Fraserview | The Fraser slope: post-war family neighbourhoods, the Punjabi Market, and the River District growing along the water. |
The local areas are official; the sides are convention. The City of Vancouver publishes the 22 local-area boundaries; the grouping into Downtown, West Side, East Side and South Vancouver is the everyday shorthand residents use, with Ontario Street as the traditional west–east divide.