A backyard housing advocate said he expects the City of Edmonton to issue one new backyard suite permit every day this year, thanks to a combination of revamped zoning and new loan products.
As of mid-September, the City of Edmonton had permitted 254 backyard suites, which is already twice as many as permitted in 2023, the previous record year.
Travis Fong, a co-founder of YEGardenSuites, forecasts the city will permit 366 suites by the end of 2024.
"That's a substantial number of homes," Fong told Taproot. (Fong's partner is Ward Métis Coun. Ashley Salvador, who is the company's other co-founder. Fong said Salvador left the organization after she was elected in 2021.)
"You know, we hear about a tower going up in Mill Woods, and that's a really exciting development, but at the same time, we nearly have a tower's worth of homes going up every year in backyard homes, but they're dispersed," Fong said. "They're spread throughout the city — they're gentle density, they're hidden density. It's not all being led by one developer."
Fong said the increase in new backyard homes is mainly due to the city's zoning bylaw renewal, which went into effect on Jan. 1. Among many changes, the new bylaw allows multiple backyard suites to be built on a lot. The previous bylaw allowed only one backyard suite per "front-yard" suite. The new bylaw also increases the maximum floor area on a second storey from 50-square-meters to 60-square-meters. Fong said that change allows a backyard suite to have an extra bedroom and helps make projects more financially viable.
A map that Fong created, which plots new backyard suite permits in Edmonton, shows them concentrated like a donut in established neighbourhoods. However, many backyard suites are popping up in new neighbourhoods, too. "When you zoom in on Rosenthal, you notice that there are several locations where every single house has a backyard home for 15 or 20 homes," Fong said. "The pattern of garden suite development in new subdivisions is very different from the pattern of backyard housing development in core neighborhoods, but these new suburbs are accounting for a very significant number of backyard homes."
Fong said there are two main reasons a homeowner or developer might build a backyard suite — as a rental suite or to house extended family on the property. "There's a whole market segment — a really significant market segment, that are racialized, different ethnicities, big family, grandparents living in the house — (and) they're looking for a property where you can put your whole family, and you can also create a certain degree of separation," Fong said. "There's a conception that that's happening mainly in mature areas, but it very much happens in suburbs."
A backyard suite featuring two apartments that's under construction in Bonnie Doon. (Tim Querengesser)
While the new zoning bylaw removed regulatory barriers, new funding programs have helped make these project financially viable, Fong said. "When you go around (in core neighbourhoods) and you see all those row houses with secondary suites going in … Those are almost all being financed with MLI Select."
MLI Select is a multi-unit mortgage loan product from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation. The tool scores projects based on affordability, accessibility, and climate compatibility, and can allow builders access to financing at reduced premiums and longer amortizations periods.
On Oct. 8, the federal government also announced a new insured mortgage refinancing product that will allow eligible homeowners to access up to 90% of their property's value to build a secondary suite, as well as extending repayment timeframes. "These are going to affect the Edmonton secondary suite world," Fong said. "It remains to be seen exactly how influential it'll be."
While 2024 is shaping up to see nearly three times the number of permits issued for backyard suites compared with the previous record in 2023, Fong predicts 2025 will be busy as well. Fong expects backyard suite permit numbers in 2025 to eclipse the 2023 record at the low end and potentially keep pace with 2024 at the high end.