Whistler Condos for Rent (Long-Term)

If you are hunting for a whistler condo for rent on a year-round lease, the first thing to understand is that half of what you will scroll past is not legally available to you, no matter how the listing reads. Whistler has thousands of condos, but a large share of them are locked into nightly tourist use by the municipality and cannot be rented long-term at all. Before neighbourhood, before price, before pets and parking, there is one distinction that decides whether a condo can be your home: Phase 1 versus Phase 2. Get that right and the search gets much simpler. Miss it and you will waste weeks chasing units that were never rentable. Here is how it works, where the rentable stock actually is, what strata rules mean for you, and roughly what it costs.

The one rule that decides everything: Phase 1 vs Phase 2

Whistler condos carry a land-use designation set by the Resort Municipality of Whistler. It is not about how old or how nice the building is. It is about what the unit is legally allowed to be used for.

Phase 1 (or straight residential): rentable long-term

Phase 1 and ordinary residential-zoned condos are flexible. The owner can live in the unit, rent it out nightly, or rent it to a long-term tenant. These are the units you want. From your side as a renter, a Phase 1 or residential condo behaves like any other rental home in BC: a standard tenancy agreement, the protections of the Residential Tenancy Act, and no obligation to move out when tourist season peaks.

Phase 2: nightly and owner use only

Phase 2 units sit under a covenant that ties them to Whistler's tourist-accommodation supply. When the owner is not personally using the unit, it must be available for nightly rental, usually through a building front desk or rental-management pool. Owner personal use is capped to a set number of days per season, and long-term tenancy is simply not a permitted use. A lot of the postcard-perfect Village and Blackcomb Benchlands condos, and essentially all of the condo-hotels, are Phase 2. They can look exactly like a home you could rent for a year. They cannot be.

How to tell which one you are looking at

The phase is not always stated in a listing, and some units advertised as "available now" are Phase 2 condos being filled between nightly bookings, which is not the same as a year-round home. Protect yourself:

• Ask directly, in writing: "Is this unit Phase 1 or Phase 2, and is a long-term tenancy permitted?" A vague answer is a red flag.
• Watch the language. "Available between bookings," "flexible dates," or anything mentioning a front desk or rental pool usually means Phase 2.
• Be wary of the Village core and condo-hotels, where most stock is not rentable long-term, and work with someone who knows the buildings.

Where the long-term condos actually are

Because so much Village and condo-hotel stock is locked into nightly use, the genuinely rentable long-term condos cluster in Whistler's residential neighbourhoods. If you start your search here rather than in the Village photos, you will find a place faster:

• Whistler Cay (Heights and Estates): central and residential, a mix of condos, townhomes, and homes with suites. One of the more reliable pools for long-term condos close to the Village.
• Nordic: a residential bench just south of the Village with condos and townhomes, quiet, close in, and popular with year-round locals.
• Spring Creek and Bayshores: newer residential development near Creekside, more modern townhome and condo stock, family-practical, and relatively better value by Whistler standards.
• Creekside (residential buildings): a mix of some tourist-accommodation stock and genuine residential condos that lease long-term, with the south-end gondola nearby.
• Emerald Estates and Alpine: more houses and suites than condos, but worth watching for the occasional residential strata unit.

For the full neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood picture, including commute times and vibe, see our guide to where to live in Whistler year-round. For the broader search across all housing types, our Whistler rentals overview and our dedicated long-term rentals in Whistler guide both walk through how to run a year-round search in a resort town.

What strata rules mean for a long-term condo tenant

Once you are inside a rentable Phase 1 or residential building, you are dealing with the strata corporation, and a few things are worth knowing.

The 2022 rule change works in your favour

Until late 2022, BC stratas could ban long-term rentals outright, and many Whistler buildings did. A provincial law change removed that power: rental-restriction bylaws are no longer enforceable, so a strata can no longer stop an owner from leasing a residential condo long-term. That is why more Whistler condos have quietly come onto the year-round market in recent years. Important caveat: this change has nothing to do with Phase 2. That restriction is a municipal land-use covenant, not a strata bylaw, so a strata vote cannot lift it.

Rules that still apply to you

The strata can still set, and enforce, a range of everyday rules:

• Pets, parking, and storage. Pet limits and parking-stall assignments are common and still allowed. If you have a dog, confirm the building's pet bylaw before you apply.
• Move-in and move-out fees and a Form K. Most stratas charge a move-in fee and require the owner to file a Form K notifying them of a new tenant. Your landlord handles the paperwork, but expect it.
• Minimum-term and noise rules. Some buildings set a minimum tenancy length or quiet-hours bylaws. These are normal and enforceable.
• Age restrictions. A 55-plus building is still permitted under the new rules, so check if that applies.

What a long-term Whistler condo costs

Whistler runs high across the board, and condos are no exception. Broad current ranges for a long-term lease, with the actual number swinging on age, finish, parking, furnishing, and whether utilities are bundled:

Unit	More value (Bayshores, Whistler Cay, Emerald)	Mid (Nordic, Spring Creek, Creekside)	Top (Village, prime Creekside)
Studio / 1-bed condo	~$2,000 to $2,600	~$2,300 to $2,900	~$2,700 to $3,200
2-bed condo / townhome	~$2,700 to $3,400	~$3,100 to $3,900	~$3,600 to $4,300+

Two things to budget for. Furnished condos, common in Whistler, carry a premium over unfurnished. And "all-in" versus "plus hydro, hot water, and internet" can be a few hundred dollars a month, so always compare on the total. For a deeper breakdown of the numbers, see average rent in Whistler 2026.

We spent two weeks obsessed with a gorgeous Village one-bedroom before someone finally explained it was Phase 2 and could never be a real lease. Once we knew to filter for Phase 1, we found a residential condo in Whistler Cay in a few days. Wish we had known the rule on day one.

Next step

A long-term condo in Whistler is findable, but only once you filter for the ones that can actually be leased. Screen for Phase 1 or residential, focus on the residential neighbourhoods, confirm the phase in writing before you apply, and have your application file ready to move fast. Browse our current Whistler rentals to see what is available now, and tell us what you are after, beds, budget, timing, furnished or not, so we can flag rentable Phase 1 condos before they hit the public boards.