Your lot could hold two, three, or four homes.
BC changed its housing rules in 2024. Most single-family lots in Metro Vancouver can now carry a duplex, a multiplex, or a coach home. Tell us where yours is and we check the zoning, then call you with what it can hold and what it costs to build.
What can your lot become?
Seven quick questions. We check the zoning, lot dimensions, and servicing, then call you with what the property can hold and what each option costs to build.
- Building across Metro Vancouver since 2002, three generations deep.
- Georgie Awards finalist and Built Green Canada Maverick Award winner.
- Every home covered by 2-5-10 warranty insurance.
What Today’s Zoning Allows
Municipalities across Metro Vancouver now allow more homes per lot than they did two years ago, though not equally. What your specific lot can hold comes down to your municipality, then size, frontage, lane access, and servicing. See the rules for every municipality, dated.
New home with a legal suite
A new family home with a two-bedroom legal suite on the lower level. Nearly every home we deliver carries one. The suite typically rents for $2,000 or more a month and covers a share of the mortgage.
Duplex
Two full homes on one lot, side by side or front and back, each with its own entry and often its own suite. Keep one and sell one, house two generations, or hold both as rentals.
Multiplex
Vancouver, Burnaby, Coquitlam, and Surrey allow up to six homes on eligible lots. The City and District of North Vancouver cap at four, and West Vancouver has not adopted its bylaw yet. Each municipality applies its own setbacks and parking rules, which we confirm lot by lot.
Coach or laneway home
A separate home over the lane or in the backyard while you keep living in the main house. Most builds run $350K to $550K all-in and rent for $2,400 to $3,600 a month.
One lot in Central Lonsdale. Two homes, a legal suite, two garages.
This is the North Vancouver duplex under construction now. A single-family lot a short walk from Lonsdale shops and transit became two three-level homes, a two-bedroom legal suite, and two detached garages.
Each home runs three levels: a finished lower floor with full-size windows, an open main floor behind a covered front porch, and bedrooms in the upper gables. Black sash windows and iron porch railings front the street.
- 2 homes
- 3 levels each
- 2-bedroom legal suite
- 2 detached garages
- Walk to Lonsdale
Two Homes, Built to the Standard of One Custom Home
Most builders price a duplex as two smaller jobs and finish it that way. We design and build each home to the standard of our detached custom work: an EnerGuide-rated envelope, proper sound separation and in-suite laundry in every suite, and finishes selected for people who stay. Recent North Vancouver builds carry an EnerGuide rating of 86.
Georgie Awards Finalist
Custom Home Over $3M, Canadian Home Builders' Association of BC
Maverick Award Winner
Transformational Maverick Award, Built Green Canada
CHBA National Finalist
National Awards for Housing Excellence, Detached Custom Home
2-5-10 Warranty
Licensed with BC Housing; HPO certified, Built Green member
What Happens After You Send a Request
We check the lot
We pull the zoning for your municipality and check lot size, frontage, lane access, and servicing against it.
What it can hold, and what it costs
We phone you with the formats your lot supports, which one fits your goal, and a build budget range for each.
Site walk and itemized estimate
A walk of the property, then an itemized estimate and a dated schedule for the option you choose. Design and permits typically take 4 to 8 months, construction 10 to 14.
Where We Build
Major Homes has completed homes in Vancouver, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Surrey, and Langley, and takes on lots across Metro Vancouver. Each city runs its own permit office. We know which ones move quickly on multiplex and laneway applications and plan your schedule around it.
- Vancouver
- North Vancouver
- West Vancouver
- Burnaby
- Coquitlam
- Surrey
- Langley
- Richmond
- Delta
Lot Questions, Answered
In most of Metro Vancouver, yes. BC's small-scale multi-unit housing legislation took effect in June 2024 and requires municipalities with more than 5,000 residents to allow three to six homes on most single-family and duplex lots. The North Shore is the exception: the City and District of North Vancouver allow up to four homes and have not adopted the six-home transit rule, and West Vancouver has not adopted its bylaw as of September 2026. Lots without municipal water and sewer, heritage properties, and some hazard areas are exempt everywhere. We confirm your lot's status in the assessment.
For a coach or laneway home, yes. The work happens in the backyard behind site fencing while you stay in the main house. A duplex or multiplex replaces the existing house, so you would live elsewhere for the build. You receive a dated schedule before construction starts so the move is planned, not guessed.
It depends on size, site conditions, and finish level. The two homes share a foundation, a roof, and a party wall, so the cost per home lands below two separate detached builds. You receive a budget range for your lot on the assessment call and an itemized estimate before you commit to anything.
Yes. A duplex can be stratified into two separately titled homes, which lets you sell one and keep the other, or sell both. We plan the strata from the design stage so the titles are ready when the homes are.
Design and permits typically take 4 to 8 months depending on the municipality, then 10 to 14 months of construction for a duplex or multiplex. Coach homes run 12 to 18 months from first meeting to occupancy. You receive a dated schedule before construction starts.
No. Design, engineering, permits, and construction all run through Major Homes, with one project manager and one point of contact. If you already have drawings, we review them and tell you whether they fit the zoning and your budget.
Yes. We assess lots before clients buy: zoning, slope, servicing, tree bylaws, and what the numbers look like for each format. The same seven questions apply. Select 'I am looking to buy' and enter the address you are considering.
Find Out What Your Lot Can Hold
Seven questions, one call. A clear answer on what your property can become and what each option costs to build.
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