Laneway Houses & Garden Suites
Laneway Houses and Garden Suites represent an incredible opportunity for homeowners to increase living space and/or generate significant rental return on their properties.
What is a Garden Suite?
Garden suites are detached secondary dwellings located in the rear yard of a typical property. They do not require the property to have access to a laneway, but do require rear or side yard access.
These suites serve as residences for family members, contribute to income generation, and open up possibilities for live-work arrangements.
Who are they for?
House Hackers
House hacking is when a homeowner rents out part of their property to have tenants cover part or all of their mortgage. House hacking is extremely popular with younger owners as well as people who have recently purchased their properties at the current high prices and interest rates. Creating an additional stream of income can help reduce their debt burden and ensure they aren’t “house poor.”
Retirees
Your home is a unique asset in that as you build equity the only way to extract it is to either sell or borrow against it. In the latter example this creates a payment which isn’t ideal for those who are retired. Laneway Houses and Garden Suites are the perfect way to stay in your home while also extracting immediate cashflow from your property to add additional income for retirement or to cover other living costs or savings goals.
Investors
Laneway Houses and Garden Suites provide real estate investors with an incredible return on investment and allow them to maximize the value of their land. Whether they are looking to add one to an existing investment property or looking for ways to extract extra rental income from future investments, these property types help create higher cap rates in any investment environment.
Generational Families
Whether you are a parent looking to provide an affordable living option for your children, or someone who wants to remain in your home as you age and need assistance, Laneway Houses and Garden Suites provide a multi-generational flexibility while maintaining independence and privacy.
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Our step by step guide walks you through the buying process and introduces you to all the people you will need along the way.
Download our guidebook.
Upcoming Educational Events
Register for one of our virtual or live upcoming workshops for buyers.
How we help.
Property Aquisition
We proactively help our clients find and acquire properties that have Laneway House and Garden Suite potential. We also automatically post listings on our website which are updated daily.
Financing Support
We work with one of the top Mortgage Brokerage firms in Canada and provide our clients with guidance on how to best qualify for and structure the financing of Laneway Houses and Garden Suites.
Design and Build
We exhaustively interviewed and sourced our building partner in order to balance quality, speed and cost. This combination allows our clients to maximize their return on investment.
Property Management
Our in house our property management team provides our clients with a hands off approach to leasing and managing their property. We source and vet tenants, manage property upkeep and more.
BY THE NUMBERS
Investment returns.
Purchase Price
$900,000
Unit Size
900 Sq Ft
Monthly Cost
$4,600
Monthly Rent
$3,800
Monthly Cashflow
-$800
Both Laneway Houses and Garden Suites provide incredible return on investment for homeowners and investors, especially when compared to other investment options.
Laneway House
Build Price
$400,000
Unit Size
900 Sq Ft
Monthly Cost
$2,200
Monthly Rent
$3,800
Monthly Cashflow
$1,600
Laneway House Regulations
Laneway Houses are part of the city of Toronto’s zoning bylaw and are known as an “as of right dwelling” which means that as long as you meet the below requirements, you don’t need any special permission to build one.
Laneway Suite are designed to be “non-severable,” meaning they cannot be detached from the main house and converted into a separate property. As a result, the suite will be connected to the main house for utilities such as water, sewer, hydro and gas.
The one criteria that is out of your control is the distance your property is from the entrance to a laneway or whether you have a wide enough walkway from the side of your property to access the rear yard. You must meet one of the criteria below in order to qualify.
Maximum Distance to Hydrant: The maximum distance from the entrance of the Laneway Suite to the main road is 45 meters if fire access is via the property, or 90 meters if fire access is via the laneway. There also needs to be a maximum of an additional 45 meters from the main road to the hydrant. or/
Minimum Unobstructed Path of Travel: A minimum unobstructed path of travel of 0.9 meters must be maintained down the side of the property.
Garden Suite
Regulations
Garden Suites are part of the city of Toronto’s zoning bylaw and are known as an “as of right dwelling” which means that as long as you meet the below requirements, you don’t need any special permission to build one.
Garden Suites are designed to be “non-severable,” meaning they cannot be detached from the main house and converted into a separate property. As a result, the suite will be connected to the main house for utilities such as water, sewer, hydro and gas.
Maximum Distance to Hydrant: The maximum distance from the entrance of the garden suite to the main road is 45 meters. There also needs to be a maximum of an additional 45 meters from the main road to the hydrant.
Minimum Unobstructed Path of Travel: A minimum unobstructed path of travel from the street to the garden suite of 1 meter must be maintained.
