How much does it cost to buy a burial plot in Metro Vancouver?

It appears that burial plots are in high demand in Metro Vancouver, with some Craigslist ads listing them for thousands of dollars.

Most of the plots are for “double depth” areas, meaning the plot has the capacity to hold two caskets.

One such listing on Craigslist is listed for $115,000, with others in the $40,000 to $60,000 range.

Those aren’t the only options though, as there are some single-plot listings for under $10,000.

Erik Lees, a cemetery planner at LEES+Associates, says the high cost is due to supply and demand.

“There is a crisis in cemetery land in the Metro Vancouver area. Almost every major centre has, or will have in the next 10 years, a crisis in their cemetery lands,” he said.

Lees says that the Craigslist ads are from individuals, not organizations and that factors into the price.

“Maybe they’ve decided to choose cremation or for whatever other reason, they find that cemetery they own is surplus to their needs,” he said.

Plot prices, location and planning

Lees says burial plots priced that high are “outliers,” with typical prices in Metro Vancouver ranging from $5,000 to $25,000.

The location of the plot, he says, can also factor into the price.

“You’ve got to keep in mind, you know, anytime you buy something, what is the product or the service you’re buying? You can pay $50,000 for a mausoleum, an above-ground structure for the entombment of a full-bodied grave. Or you can go to an outlying municipal cemetery in the Fraser Valley and pay a couple thousand. So, it all depends on the location and the quality of the cemetery.”

It appears that burial plots are in high demand in Metro Vancouver, with some Craigslist ads listing them for thousands of dollars. (Source: Craigslist)

Lees explains that more needs to be done when it comes to cemetery planning and population death.

“There has not been enough planning done for cemeteries. People and politicians tend to put cemeteries out of sight out of mind, people don’t like to talk about it. And of course, acquisition of land is an expensive undertaking at the best of times, especially right now. So there is a real shortage of cemetery land in most metropolitan areas in the country, and certainly, Vancouver’s metropolitan area is no different.”

He adds that there are options to help with the “crisis,” and cities need to be prepared for the future.

“There [are] actually different ways of making cemetery land, work [for] multiple purposes. In urban areas, they are beautiful places for passive recreation, habitat, tree canopy, stormwater absorption…I think that most councils need to really think about cemeteries as a keystone of the public open space system…and consider cemeteries as memorial parks.”