https://www.burnabynow.com/local-new...urnaby-7547730

City of Burnaby finally allows laneway houses to be built

"Burnaby laneway home regulations state the homes can be up to two storeys tall and between 350 sq. ft. and 1,507 sq. ft. (depending on the lot)."

From the article above. I thought there would be way more laneways built since inception, but even with laneways, it barely makes a dent in rental housing. The province needs something radical to really tackle housing. Allowing laneways doesn't do much to move the needle.

Personally, I seem to see waaaaaay more duplexes and quad-plexes being built nowadays, instead of laneway houses. Even when I take the existing laneway houses in to account, I personally don't think there are that many of them.

Two story laneways... that's interesting. I wonder if I can build one where it's garage on the bottom and house on top? That would be the ideal setup where I can retain my garage for parking and storage, but rent out or let my parents live upstairs

Laneways are expensive to build. It’s much more cost effective to build a duplex/quadplex. Generally speaking a builder can’t subdivide/stratify a laneway so you’re stuck selling as a single parcel which isn’t nearly as profitable.

Really the laneway benefits a SF homeowner who wants to bring down their monthly costs by generating a bit of income. Making the real estate problem larger by increasing the lending ability of homeowners. Lol.

Isn't laneway like stupid expensive to build now cuz the permit cost? Last time I heard it was like $500

1200 sq ft at $450/sq ft builds cost is over 500

They are stupid expensive, and takes up a lot of time.

My particular build is at the tail end of completion. From start to finish, it was almost 2 years.

The cost was about $400sqft, so about $400,000 after everything

A good laneway is probably $400k now. If you plan to live in it yourself you are probably looking at 500-600k with high end furnishings.

The value proposition isn't there. You will never recoup that money, and honestly it's only good if you need your parents at an arms reach just in case cause 500k is better spent on a condo imo from a ROI pov.

Dam the $200K laneways of 2018/19 are gonezo

Yeah, for $500K, I'd much rather have a condo + Garage in tact than to build a laneway and lose parking.

duplexes would be great if they werent like 2m for the privilege of experiencing what its like to be conjoined twins. if they were half the price of a normal detached house then great. if they are 75% of the cost of detached, then not so great... the problem is that there is a giant leap between owning a townhouse and a detached house if you're looking in the same city. the only stop gap is a duplex, and they cost almost as much as a house, and there are hardly any of them around.

Update on my post which was back in March.

https://i.imgur.com/Dtxx4y9.jpeg

How it sits so far.

Just needs landscaping and a bit of interior work, hopefully moving in the next month or so.

I just realized, you guys have a curb on the laneway? What kind of bougie ass shit is that?

I'm assuming that large area beside the structure is going to be a parking pad. Does the city make you pay for their workers to knock down the curb to make it a driveway entrance?

What's the length of that lot? Looks like there's still plenty of space in between the two structures.

The curb will be demolished and it will become a driveway entry

I believe the onus is on the builder to knock the curb down for it to become a driveway and rebuilding the sidewalk and remaining curb to COV spec.

The lot size is 42x165

Still plenty of yard space between the two structures

Looks great!

I am curious what the point of building 2 patios to stare at an alleyway is though?

The laneway house actually sits on the backside of a residential street.

The view we were trying to achieve is looking North East of Joyce Collingwood area, a bit of greenery and some mountains.

super nice, so jelly of corner lots
gonna be so worth it, congrats!

I went with clear glass for my railings and should have gotten frosted glass. It's nice having that privacy when you're on the deck. If I had a waterfront view, i'd get the clear glass, but in the city the frosted glass is better I feel. It was the same pricing, but I thought clear glass was the way to go.

Now, I have to buy that privacy film, but i'm too lazy to put it up.

I'm surprised roi is better in condo considering the condo fees. I heard it's an easy $2000+ on lane way vs might be stretching it on a $500 k condo.

You can sell the condo and recoup most of the 500k back.

You can't easily sell a laneway. You can split the deed but your main house will take a huge hit. You won't sell your whole package for $400k more with a laneway. You also have to pay more property taxes and utility fees. Overall in terms of rent it's about the same, but it's about the ability to cash out if you need to.

The other downsides are you lose the utility of that part of your land for the better part of 2 years as it's being built, you lose parking space because Vancouver doesn't allow you to have a double garage and a laneway on top.

Yes they do. A friend has a 2 car garage, 12 ft ceilings, hoist and 1 bed suite in the laneway house. Don't know what the lot size is.