Departure Bay Real Estate

Departure Bay is a beautiful oceanside neighbourhood, a bowl-shaped valley rising from a large beach.

It is a highly desirable area owing to its spectacular ocean views, large swimming beach and park, well-kept homes, and central location. Almost anyone who's been to Nanaimo will be familiar with Departure Bay as the large bay where the ferry arrives from Vancouver. (But the ferry terminal is not in the residential area referred to as Departure Bay - it's in the Brechin Hill neighbourhood.)

There are luxury waterfront houses down by the beach of course, but as you go uphill you'll find different types of neighbourhoods. At the southern end are Cilaire and Beach Estates - then further north is the Lynburn neighbourhood, also notable for its mid-century and higher-end postwar homes. There are some strata buildings close to the beach, and then to the north, the land rises as dark basalt bluffs covered in houses of wood and glass. Sherwood Forest is tucked into here (with streets named Prince John Way, Marion Way, Bowstring Close, Nottingham, etc.).

North of Sherwood Forest there is still a lot of undeveloped land (beautiful undulating lands with arbutus and moss and towering firs and hemlock), with multiple ridges rolling back toward the Hammond Bay area. These ridges are still being developed with beautiful newer custom homes, but a large area has also been preserved as hiking trails and protected lakes.

Amenities are very near with several big malls within a 10 min drive. But even closer are the many beaches and rocky shores, most notably Pipers Lagoon and Neck Point, and of course the long sandy Departure Bay Beach, a popular (but seldom crowded) swimming beach with a playground, grassy lawn, driftwood hide-outs and a coffee shop.

Need help buying or selling in Departure Bay? Contact me.

Condos & Townhomes in Departure Bay

I've compiled all of the building stratas in this neighbourhood and placed them onto the interactive map below. (The map is easier to use on screens larger than a phone.) You can click the pins to see a photo and a link to a page about each strata. The same list of stratas appears below the map, too.

Properties for Sale in Departure Bay

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New

$749,000

1611 Bowstring Close, Nanaimo

4 Beds 3 Baths 1,851 SqFt 9,584 SqFt Lot Single Family Detached MLS® # 1028595

REMAX Professionals (LD)

New

$969,000

3269 Smugglers Hill Dr, Nanaimo

6 Beds 3 Baths 4,542 SqFt 11,762 SqFt Lot Single Family Detached MLS® # 1027925

REMAX Professionals (NA)

New

$978,000

3220 Telescope Terr, Nanaimo

6 Beds 3 Baths 2,995 SqFt 14,811 SqFt Lot Single Family Detached MLS® # 1027571

REMAX Professionals (NA)

$979,900

985 Malaspina Cres, Nanaimo

5 Beds 3 Baths 2,654 SqFt 11,326 SqFt Lot Single Family Detached MLS® # 1027050

eXp Realty (NA)

New

$850,000

3270 Smugglers Hill Dr, Nanaimo

4 Beds 3 Baths 2,463 SqFt 12,633 SqFt Lot Single Family Detached MLS® # 1027718

eXp Realty (NA)

New

$825,000

2405 Lynburn Cres, Nanaimo

3 Beds 3 Baths 1,849 SqFt 14,375 SqFt Lot Single Family Detached MLS® # 1026073

eXp Realty (NA)

$1,099,900

15 Cilaire Dr, Nanaimo

4 Beds 3 Baths 2,327 SqFt 10,455 SqFt Lot Single Family Detached MLS® # 1027637

Royal LePage Nanaimo Realty (NanIsHwyN)

$775,000

161 Canterbury Cres, Nanaimo

0 Beds 0 Baths 0 SqFt 11,326 SqFt Lot Land MLS® # 1027166

REMAX Professionals (NA)

$859,900

3263 Stoney Ridge, Nanaimo

4 Beds 3 Baths 2,012 SqFt 0 SqFt Lot Row/Townhouse MLS® # 1027408

REMAX Professionals (NA)

$649,000

3193 King Richard Dr, Nanaimo

2 Beds 1 Bath 1,050 SqFt 6,970 SqFt Lot Single Family Detached MLS® # 1027382

2% Realty Pacific Coast Inc.

$899,900

↓ $29,100

2060 Berkshire Pl, Nanaimo

4 Beds 3 Baths 2,690 SqFt 6,534 SqFt Lot Single Family Detached MLS® # 1027078

Royal LePage Island Living (QU)

$879,900

1448 Rose Ann Dr, Nanaimo

3 Beds 3 Baths 2,092 SqFt 7,841 SqFt Lot Single Family Detached MLS® # 1027037

REMAX Professionals (NA)

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Did You Know?

The first telephone line in British Columbia was installed here in the 1880s - it ran from the wharves at Departure Bay up to the coal town of Wellington (now part of Nanaimo, between Diver Lake and Long Lake). One of the mining engineers assembled the telephone system based on instructions he saw in a science magazine.

New Developments in Departure Bay

Barrington Heights townhomes

Barrington Heights is a development going back to the 1990s, with newer phases being added sporadically over the decades - the most recent was phase 4, a block of townhomes built in 2022 immediately west of this next phase.

These next phases (5, 6, and 7) will involve 26 townhouse units in 5 quadruplex buildings and 2 triplex buildings. It appears they will be on the north side of a knoll, looking northward, rather than having the south-facing views that many other homes have in this area.

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2545 Doctors Road - Townhomes

Lauren Mary Place Townhomes

Ridgeline of Cottle Place

1415 Loat St - Rowhomes near the beach

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