Financing
Four ways families fund the work.
These are the programmes families most often use to pay for a conversion. None of them is an offer, and none is arranged by us. What follows is what each one does, the limits that currently apply, and the question worth asking a lender before you count on it.
Buying and building at once
Purchase Plus Improvements
One mortgage that covers the house and the planned work, sized against what the property will be worth once the work is done rather than what it is worth on the day you buy. Most lenders offer a version of it, including TD. The terms below are the insurer's, and they are what actually governs whether it is available to you.
- Maximum loan to value
- 95% owner occupied with one or two units, 90% with three or four
- Maximum amortization
- 25 years
- As improved property value
- must be below $1,000,000
- Single advance
- improvement costs up to 10% of the as improved value. Above that the money comes in progress advances
The $1,000,000 ceiling is the part that matters here. A detached home in Delta or Vancouver at $1M to $1.4M, plus a conversion, sits above it, so the insured version of this programme will not apply to most properties this plan targets. Above that ceiling you are into conventional financing with 20 percent or more down, where the lender sets the terms rather than the insurer. Ask any lender quoting you Purchase Plus Improvements which of the two they mean.
Source: CMHC Improvement mortgage loan insurance
Borrowing in stages
Scotia Total Equity Plan
One application against your home that can hold several mortgages and several lines of credit at the same time. A conversion is not a single payment, it is design, then permits, then construction, so being able to draw at each stage without a fresh application each time is the point of it.
- Total borrowing at setup
- up to 80% of the value of your home
- Line of credit portion
- up to 65%
- Structure
- up to three mortgages and three lines of credit under one plan
- Set up
- available at no additional fee
Ask how the charge is registered against your title and what that means if you later want to move the mortgage to another lender, because plans of this shape can make switching more involved than a standard mortgage. Ask too how the available room changes as you pay the mortgage down.
Source: Scotiabank
For a home you already own
CMHC refinancing for a secondary suite
Refinancing specifically to build a self contained suite, against what the property will be worth once the suite exists. Of the four, this is the one written for what this plan actually does.
- Maximum loan to value
- up to 90%
- Units
- up to four in total, including the ones already there
- As improved property value
- must be below $2,000,000
- Maximum amortization
- 30 years
- The suite
- must be self contained and comply with local bylaws
- Occupancy
- at least one unit lived in by you, or by a relative by marriage, common law partnership or a parent and child relationship, rent free
- Rentals
- no letting shorter than 90 consecutive days
The $2,000,000 ceiling leaves real room at Delta and Vancouver prices, and the occupancy rule is written around exactly the arrangement a multigenerational split creates. The short term rental restriction is the one to read closely if anyone in the household was picturing the suite on a nightly rental platform.
Source: CMHC Refinance
Money back after the work
Multigenerational Home Renovation Tax Credit
A federal credit for building a self contained secondary unit so that a senior, or an adult eligible for the disability tax credit, can live with family. It is refundable, which means it is paid even if you owe no tax.
- Rate
- 14.5% of qualifying costs
- Qualifying expenses
- up to $50,000 for each qualifying renovation
- Maximum credit
- $7,250
- The unit
- must be self contained
- Who it is for
- a senior, or an adult eligible for the disability tax credit
This arrives after the work, at tax time, so it does not help with the cost of getting started. Note also that an older figure of 15 percent and $7,500 is still repeated widely online and is out of date. Have an accountant confirm your own situation before counting on it.
Source: Canada Revenue Agency
One British Columbia programme people still ask about
The Secondary Suite Incentive Program is closed.
BC Housing stopped accepting applications to its Secondary Suite Incentive Program, the forgivable loan of up to $40,000, on 31 March 2025. Existing approvals are being honoured. It is still described as open on a good number of websites, so it is worth saying plainly here. It also required the suite to be rented below market to someone who is not immediate family, which would have ruled out most of what this plan is for.
Source: BC Housing
Before you rely on any of this
We are not your lender, and not your accountant.
Cam is a licensed realtor and a licensed builder. He is neither a mortgage broker nor an accountant, and nothing here is advice about your situation. Every figure on this page was taken from the programme's own published material and is current as at 6 September 2026. Lender products and tax rules change, so confirm the terms that apply to you directly with the lender or with your accountant before you make a decision.