Edmonton Gets Huge Secondary Suite Boost

On August 20th, 2018 the Edmonton City Council voted unanimously to amend their zoning bylaws for legal secondary suites. This change will significantly increase the number of houses that can become legal suites. Edmonton is truly showing itself to be one of the most progressive cities in Canada for secondary suites.

What Has Changed?

Right now in Edmonton about 3,500 homes have legal secondary suites. This is less than 2% of all homes in the city. There are 3 really big changes that have happened with this update to the by-law which could increase secondary suites in Edmonton by nearly 50%!

Secondary Suites can now be added to row, duplex, and semi-detached houses.

Semi-detached and duplex homes together account for about 30,000 properties in Edmonton. By allowing legal suites to be built on those properties the city expects to see about 500 new secondary suites added.

Row housing is also becoming more popular in the City, and adding secondary suites to new row housing properties seems like a great option for creating more rental opportunities. Edmonton city planner Anne Stevenson said she does not expect to see many current row homes get updated due to the high cost of retrofitting these kind of buildings to Alberta building code. If however, row homes are upgraded on a similar level to detached homes, then nearly 600 new suites could be added to the city.

Minimum lot size has now been removed.

There are also over 32,000 homes in Edmonton with lots smaller than 360 square meters. Edmonton’s old bylaws said that legal suites could not be built on lots smaller than this size. With this new change any of those smaller lots can now have a secondary suite added to them. It is great to see how the city realized how pointless a bylaw like that was. And they expect to see around 550 new suites added to the city with this change alone.

Adjusting maximum floor area for secondary suites built above grade, or partially above grade, to increase flexibility in interior layout.

The old bylaw stated that if any portion of the legal secondary suite was on the main floor or “above grade” level, then a maximum of only 70 square meters could be used for the rest of the suite on the basement level. This arbitrary maximum meant that you would be forced to leave empty space in the basement, or that a suite would just not be built.

The main reason that the above rule was added was to ensure that a secondary suite stayed smaller than the primary residence. The new bylaw changes simplified the issue, and now say that all that matters is that the secondary suite is smaller than the primary suite. This simple change will be great for some homeowners.

To Sum It Up

The changes that have come to Edmonton have granted more homes. than ever to add legal suites to their properties. The city could see up to 1,650 new legal suites added in the upcoming years.

Edmonton has many plans in place to encourage homeowners to add legal suites to their homes and even has a grant program that can give up to $2,000 to homeowners who want to make this happen.

Edmonton has shown that it is one of the most progressive cities in Canada for the encouragement of legal secondary suites, and we hope to see other cities begin to catch up.

To learn more about why you should turn your home into a secondary suite read our articles The Top 3 Reasons to Create a Legal Secondary Suite and Is A Secondary Suite Right For You?