What is the strata fee at Sandbridge in Penticton?

It varies by unit, because bare land strata fees are generally set by unit entitlement rather than a flat number. Recent listings have shown figures in the roughly $280 to $400 a month range. Confirm the current fee for the specific unit on its Form B information certificate before you rely on it, because fees change and vary by size.

What is the strata fee at The Springs in Penticton?

Public listing sources have shown figures from around $75 to the mid $90s a month, again varying by unit. As with any strata fee, treat a marketing page or an old listing as a starting point, not the answer, and get the current number from the Form B for the specific unit you are considering.

Why is the strata fee so much lower at The Springs than at Sandbridge?

Because the fee funds what the strata maintains, and the two communities maintain different things. Sandbridge's fee supports a clubhouse with an indoor pool, an outdoor hot tub, a billiards room and a library. The Springs' fee supports a Friendship Centre with a games room, a kitchen and a water feature, a lighter amenity load. A bigger shared building with a pool to run costs more to fund than a smaller one without one.

Is a lower strata fee always the better deal in a bare land strata?

No, and this is the mistake I see most. In a bare land strata the fee still has to fund the contingency reserve for whatever the corporation owns, roads, drainage, common buildings. A fee that looks cheap can mean the reserve is thin, and the shortfall shows up later as a special levy instead of a monthly cost you can budget for. Read the depreciation report and the reserve fund balance before deciding a lower number is the win.

Why do two neighbours in the same community pay different strata fees?

Because in most stratas, including bare land stratas, fees are set in proportion to unit entitlement, which for a residential lot is generally the habitable area of the home as measured by a BC land surveyor. A larger home carries a larger share of the budget. Two houses can look nearly identical from the street and still carry a different fee if their measured habitable area differs.

Can I keep a pet at Sandbridge or The Springs?

Both allow one small dog or one cat per household, based on public information for each community, but pet bylaws can be amended and sometimes differ by exact wording, weight limit or breed restriction. Confirm the current bylaw for the specific strata before you count on it, particularly if the pet is part of the decision.

Sandbridge and The Springs: two Penticton communities compared

Q: Are Sandbridge and The Springs the same community in Penticton?

No. They sit next to each other near the south end of town, close to Skaha Lake, and both are gated, age-qualified bare land stratas, but they are two separate strata corporations. Separate bylaws, separate budgets, separate contingency reserve funds, separate depreciation reports. Being neighbours does not make them comparable on paper.

By Dan Jones · September 20, 2026

Bottom line: Sandbridge and The Springs sit a short walk apart near Skaha Lake, look similar from the street, and are entirely separate strata corporations with different amenities and a real gap in what they cost to carry every month. Both are gated, age-qualified, bare land communities of rancher-style homes built for a downsizer who wants no stairs and no lawn to mow. The difference is what each strata maintains. Sandbridge funds a clubhouse with an indoor pool and a hot tub. The Springs funds a smaller Friendship Centre. That is also most of why one runs a noticeably higher monthly fee than the other, and a lower fee is not automatically the better deal once you understand what a bare land strata fee is actually for.

I am Dan Jones, a REALTOR with Royal LePage Locations West in Penticton, licence number 1118346. I was a Red Seal journeyman carpenter from 1980 and built houses for twenty-four years before I was licensed in 2004, which matters here because the number that actually separates these two communities is not on the sign at the gate. It is in the depreciation report.

What they have in common

Both are bare land strata communities, meaning you own your lot and the house on it outright, and the strata owns the roads, the common landscaping and the shared buildings. I cover how that ownership works generally in what is a bare land strata.

Both are age-qualified 55+ by strata bylaw, which is a fact about the property, not a comment on who should live there. Both are gated. Both sit within walking distance of Skaha Lake and its beach. Both are built around single-level, rancher-style homes with attached garages, which is exactly the layout covered in rancher or two storey when you downsize. Both allow one small dog or one cat per household, based on the pet bylaws each publishes, though you should confirm the current wording before you count on it.

From the street, on a drive-by, they can be hard to tell apart. That is exactly why people mix them up.

What is actually different

They are two separate strata corporations. Separate bylaws, separate budgets, separate contingency reserve funds, separate depreciation reports, separate councils. A fact true of one tells you nothing about the other.

The amenities are not the same size. Sandbridge’s clubhouse carries an indoor pool, an outdoor hot tub, a billiards room and a library. The Springs’ Friendship Centre carries a games room, a kitchen and gathering space around a water feature, without a pool to run and heat year round. Both offer RV parking for owners.

The fees reflect that gap. Recent public listings put Sandbridge in the rough range of $280 to $400 a month depending on the unit, and The Springs somewhere from the mid $70s to the mid $90s. Those figures move, they vary by unit, and neither should be quoted as gospel. Get the actual number off the Form B for the specific unit you are looking at. What is worth understanding is not the exact dollar figure, it is why the gap exists at all: a pool and a hot tub cost more to insure, heat and maintain than a games room does, and the fee is what funds that difference.

Why the cheaper one is not automatically the better deal

This is the part downsizers most often get backwards, and it comes straight from reading depreciation reports on hillside and bare land developments for years.

A bare land strata fee has two jobs. It pays the day to day costs, insurance, landscaping, administration, and it feeds the contingency reserve fund for the big items down the road: road resurfacing, drainage work, and on a community with shared buildings, the roof and systems on that clubhouse or Friendship Centre.

A low fee can mean either of two things. It can mean the strata genuinely has less to maintain, which appears to be part of the real story at The Springs given the lighter amenity load. Or it can mean the reserve is underfunded for what the strata does own, in which case the shortfall does not disappear. It arrives later as a special levy, all at once, instead of arriving gradually as part of your monthly cost.

The only way to tell the difference is the depreciation report and the Form B, for the specific strata, not a general impression from the gate. I cover exactly what to check and where those numbers live in how to read strata documents before you buy, and what changed in the reporting rules in depreciation reports and what changed in 2024. Neither community is exempt from that homework because it looks well kept from the road.

Why two neighbours in the same strata pay different fees

One more thing worth knowing before you compare a specific unit to another: bare land strata fees are typically set in proportion to unit entitlement, and for a residential strata lot that is usually the habitable area of the home, measured by a BC land surveyor, under the Strata Property Act and its regulation.

In practice that means a 1,900 square foot home in the same strata as a 1,500 square foot home is very likely paying a different monthly fee, even sitting on an identical lot with identical amenities. So when you compare a listing’s fee to a neighbour’s, or to a figure you found on a marketing page, check that you are comparing similar square footage, not just the same gate.

What I would check before choosing between them

Walk both clubhouses, not just the listing photos. A pool you will actually use is worth something real. A pool you will not is a cost with no benefit to you personally.
Get the Form B and the depreciation report for the specific unit, not a general sense of the community. Two Form B packages, two fee schedules, two reserve fund balances, and do not let a figure from one get quoted about the other.
Ask what condition the shared buildings are in, particularly anything with a pool, since pool mechanicals and pool decks are a real, recurring reserve item that a games room does not carry.
Confirm the current pet bylaw in writing if a pet is part of the decision, rather than relying on a general description, including this one.
Compare fee to habitable area, not fee to fee, if you are weighing two specific units against each other.

What I think about it

Neither community is the better buy in the abstract. Sandbridge’s fee buys you a resort-style amenity most people would pay for separately if they had to. The Springs’ fee buys you less building to maintain and less cost to carry every month. Both are legitimate trades, and which one suits you depends on whether you would actually use a pool and a hot tub often enough to make that cost worth it, at this stage of your life, in this house.

What I would not do is choose based on which gate looks nicer, or assume the lower number is the smarter one without reading what it is actually funding. That is true of these two specific communities and it is true of every bare land strata in this valley.

If you are looking at either community and want someone to walk both clubhouses and read both sets of documents with you, email me at dano007@shaw.ca or call 250-488-0226.