Most advice about buying a condo in Vancouver comes down to one word: don't. I've spent years warning buyers away from the fees, the surprise special assessments, and the leasehold traps that quietly drain a family's savings. This time I'm doing the opposite. I'm showing you the one kind of condo I would actually trust with my own family's money.

If you're moving to Vancouver, or moving within Metro Vancouver and weighing whether a condo even makes sense for your family, this is the buyer's framework I wish more people had before they signed anything. It's less about any single building and more about how to separate a safe, sellable home from an expensive mistake you can't walk away from.

I put six common condo types through the same gauntlet. Each one has to survive a series of tests covering who really shares the repair bill, what  ...