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
New
$1,085,000
508 Greenbriar Pl, Nanaimo
4
Beds
5
Baths
3,626 SqFt
12,633 SqFt Lot
Single Family Detached
MLS® # 1000604
Royal LePage Nanaimo Realty (NanIsHwyN)
New
$989,900
2910 Haliday Cres, Nanaimo
5
Beds
4
Baths
2,606 SqFt
8,277 SqFt Lot
Single Family Detached
MLS® # 1000094
Royal LePage Nanaimo Realty (NanIsHwyN)
New
$525,000
2560 Departure Bay Rd 405, Nanaimo
2
Beds
2
Baths
1,526 SqFt
0 SqFt Lot
Condo Apartment
MLS® # 999984
460 Realty Inc. (NA)
New
$1,197,000
114 Amphion Terr, Nanaimo
3
Beds
3
Baths
2,534 SqFt
3,921 SqFt Lot
Single Family Detached
MLS® # 999719
Royal LePage Nanaimo Realty (NanIsHwyN)
New
$850,000
3130 Smugglers Hill Dr, Nanaimo
3
Beds
3
Baths
1,508 SqFt
22,652 SqFt Lot
Single Family Detached
MLS® # 1000005
RE/MAX of Nanaimo
$799,900
2820 Biscayne Bay, Nanaimo
3
Beds
3
Baths
1,802 SqFt
11,326 SqFt Lot
Single Family Detached
MLS® # 999152
RE/MAX of Nanaimo
$1,149,000
122 Bray Rd, Nanaimo
3
Beds
3
Baths
2,520 SqFt
4,792 SqFt Lot
Single Family Detached
MLS® # 999626
Royal LePage Parksville-Qualicum Beach Realty (QU)
$1,290,000
606 Nottingham Dr, Nanaimo
4
Beds
3
Baths
1,661 SqFt
10,890 SqFt Lot
Single Family Detached
MLS® # 997950
RE/MAX of Nanaimo
$849,000
19-21 Cilaire Dr, Nanaimo
4
Beds
2
Baths
1,952 SqFt
11,326 SqFt Lot
Full Duplex
MLS® # 998037
Royal LePage Nanaimo Realty (NanIsHwyN)
$1,075,000
1217 Manzanita Pl 103, Nanaimo
4
Beds
4
Baths
2,199 SqFt
0 SqFt Lot
Single Family Detached
MLS® # 997665
Comfree
$1,224,900
1542 Knight Court Rd, Nanaimo
5
Beds
4
Baths
3,585 SqFt
8,277 SqFt Lot
Single Family Detached
MLS® # 997284
Royal LePage Nanaimo Realty (NanIsHwyN)
$1,269,000
1362 Ivy Lane, Nanaimo
4
Beds
3
Baths
2,764 SqFt
14,375 SqFt Lot
Single Family Detached
MLS® # 996125
Royal LePage Nanaimo Realty (NanIsHwyN)
Nearby Schools:
- Rock City Elementary ; 3741 Departure Bay Rd
- Departure Bay Elementary ; 3004 Departure Bay Rd
- Cilaire Elementary ; 25 Cilaire Dr
- Wellington Secondary ; 3135 Mexicana Rd
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.
2545 Doctors Road - Townhomes
This will be a 5-unit townhome strata: 2 duplex buildings and one detached. The development application is approved (DP001238), with the permit expiring in December 2024.
Lauren Mary Place Townhomes
(Development application approved early 2023.) This will be a 13-unit townhome development in the Departure Bay neighbourhood, close to the Edgewood strata development off Rock City Road. The topography slopes upward from the street, toward the south, meaning the homes will face northward toward the Linley Valley. It's not clear to me whether the homes will have ocean views.
Each home will have a garage on the lower floor, with two more floors above that. There will be three buildings (4-5 units in each), with one of those being on the west side, separated from the other two blocks by Mariposa Dr, and the other two blocks to the east will have a landscaped space between them, including "play areas" which may indicate that these will be a great choice for families.
Ridgeline of Cottle Place
Status: Pending(?)
These 24 units (duplexes, triplexes and single family homes) will be built on top of a ridge near Pipers Lagoon and Stephenson Point, near the border of Departure Bay and Hammond Bay. The ocean and island views will be spectacular.
I don't know anything about a timeline at this point - an application was made to the city in 2018 and approved, and then it was renewed in 2020; it expires in May 2024.
1415 Loat St - Rowhomes near the beach
The City has been asked to rezone a 0.77-acre property near Departure Bay Beach - about a block from the playground - so that a cluster of brand new townhomes can be built. The developer appears to be Treelife Properties.
There will be 37 units in total, including 10 studio units of just 312-327 sqft each (but it's possible I am mis-reading the building plans). The rest will be 2- or 3-bedroom units, many with their own garages.
If you'd like to be kept in the loop about this development, just contact me and let me know. I'm guessing this one won't be listed for sale until sometime in 2025.
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