Questions and answers
Costs, zoning, mortgages and what happens if two households stop getting along. Every answer is on this page, in full, with the source named where there is one.
Two households buy one property together and convert it into two self contained homes, each with its own front door. Holden Homes handles the purchase and Construct by Nuthatch handles the build, so the same team stays with you from the offer through to the keys. The effect is that a detached home in Metro Vancouver becomes attainable on one household's share rather than one household's whole budget.
Three groups, and what separates them is whether you already own land and whether you already have someone to buy with. Families and friends who own a house or a lot already and want to convert it. Households with neither a property nor a partner yet, who join the co-buyer list and get matched. And investors buying to convert.
Yes. Friends, siblings, adult children and their parents, or two households who have never met. The legal and financial structure is the same either way. What changes is how much time you spend up front agreeing how the arrangement will work, and that conversation is worth having properly.
You join the co-buyer list. You answer a questionnaire covering budget, timing, where you want to live and how you actually live day to day, and Cam matches households he thinks will suit each other. Nobody is introduced to anybody until both sides have agreed to it.
Three levels, depending on how far you go. A legal secondary suite runs $90,000 to $160,000. An up and down duplex conversion runs $280,000 to $420,000. A side by side duplex runs $380,000 to $580,000. These are ranges rather than quotes, and every project is priced after a site visit.
Mostly the condition of what is already there. A house with sound framing and serviceable electrical and plumbing sits near the low end. If those have to be replaced rather than kept, the number climbs. Moving a wall costs more than working around it, and moving plumbing costs more than moving a wall.
Detached homes in this market run roughly $1.1 million to $1.4 million. Split between two households with the conversion included, a share lands near $550,000, which is less than a great many Metro Vancouver condominiums. You also get a yard and the floor area of a house rather than an apartment.
It depends on how the ownership is structured and on the lender, and it is one of the first things to settle rather than something to assume. Getting a clear answer from a mortgage professional early is part of what we help you do, because the answer shapes what you can afford and how the property is titled.
Two programmes are worth knowing about, and both have real conditions attached.
The Multigenerational Home Renovation Tax Credit is a refundable federal credit worth 14.5 percent of up to $50,000 of eligible work, which the Canada Revenue Agency currently states as up to $7,250. It applies to creating a self contained secondary unit for a relative who is either 65 or older, or between 18 and 64 and eligible for the disability tax credit. The unit needs its own entrance, kitchen, bathroom and sleeping area, and must meet local codes and permits. One important limit that is easy to miss: only one renovation can be claimed for a given person in their lifetime.
CMHC also has a refinance programme for building secondary suites, allowing borrowing against up to 90 percent of the improved property value, on properties worth under $2 million, with up to four units, amortisation up to 30 years, and a minimum credit score of 600 for at least one borrower. At least one unit has to be lived in by you or a relative rent free, and the new suites cannot be used as short term rentals.
Both programmes change. Treat these as a starting point and confirm the current terms with an accountant and a mortgage professional for your own situation.
Sources: Canada Revenue Agency ยท CMHC
Very likely yes. Since BC's Bill 44 came into force, most lots that were zoned for a single family home now allow more than one home without rezoning. In Delta the thresholds are straightforward: a lot of 280 square metres or less allows at least three units, a lot over 280 square metres allows at least four, and a lot over 280 square metres within 400 metres of frequent transit on the Scott Road corridor allows up to six.
Read the full answer on building a second home in Delta
Source: City of Delta
Not for what Bill 44 already permits. That is the whole change: what used to take a rezoning application, a public hearing and many months now does not. You still need building permits, and the work still has to meet the building code and the bylaw's rules on things like setbacks, height and parking.
Yes, and it is worth checking early. Lots over one acre, or 4,050 square metres, are excluded, as are lots without municipal water and sewer, and properties with a provincial heritage designation. A covenant registered on title has to be read before anyone can tell you what is possible. Land in the Agricultural Land Reserve is governed by a separate provincial process.
Bill 44 sets a floor rather than a target. What actually fits on your lot depends on its shape, the setbacks, parking, servicing and trees. The eligibility checker gives you a first read in about a minute, and Cam gives you the real answer after looking at the lot.
This is the question to settle before you buy rather than after, and it is the one most people put off. A written co-ownership agreement should cover how much notice is required, how the property gets valued, and whether the other household has the first opportunity to buy. That agreement is drawn up with a lawyer. Our job is to make sure you do not skip it.
The design helps and the paperwork protects you. Two self contained homes with separate entrances means you can live entirely separate lives in the same building, which is a very different thing from sharing a house. But it is the ownership agreement, not the architecture, that decides what happens if one household wants out.
Every applicant completes the questionnaire, then a criminal record check and a phone interview. If that goes well you receive a profile card with no last names and no financial details on it, and the other household receives yours. Nobody's contact details are shared with anybody until both sides have said yes. The first meeting is a coffee, and either side can decline at any point without explaining why.
For some people, genuinely yes, and for others no. It suits households who want to be near family without living on top of them, and who would rather own something with a yard than rent something without one. It does not suit anyone who wants the arrangement to stay informal, because the whole thing rests on decisions being written down. If you are unsure, that is a reason to have the conversation, not a reason to avoid it.
Because normally those two jobs sit on either side of closing. You buy the house, then afterwards, from somebody else, you find out what the work is going to cost. The renovation number arrives after the decision it should have informed. Here the same person reads the purchase and the build as one thing, so the number you are deciding on is the whole number.
It depends on the level of work and on how long permits take in your municipality, so we give you a schedule after the scope is settled rather than a number before it. What we can tell you at the first conversation is what the sequence looks like and where the timeline is likely to be decided.
Scope is agreed in writing before work starts, with allowances set for the things that genuinely cannot be known until a wall is open. Anything that changes after that is a change order you see and approve before it happens, and there is a weekly update so nothing arrives as a surprise at the end.
Anyone whose main goal is the lowest possible bid, since we will not be the cheapest number you get. Anyone who wants to manage their own trades and use us for part of the job, because we take responsibility for the whole build and that only works when the whole build is ours. And anyone who needs work starting next week.