Home Renovations in Vancouver

Kitchen updates and bathroom renovations valued under $250,000, with no structural change, can go through the City of Vancouver's Residential Renovation Fast Track, which issues permits within a week. Alterations that make a washroom more accessible qualify too. A new layout that moves the sink, toilet or shower also needs a City plumbing permit, and the City aims to process plumbing applications that need no plan review the next business day.

In Vancouver, a secondary suite is an approved dwelling unit inside a house or duplex, with its own kitchen, living area and outside entrance. A house can have one suite and a duplex two, one per unit, where the zone allows suites in a duplex, and a suite cannot be strata-titled. Adding or legalizing one takes a development and building permit, because it formally changes the use of the house, and the suite is legal only once it passes its final inspection. A house in the R1-1 zone can also have a laneway house of up to 0.25 floor space ratio (FSR) and 186 m² (2,000 sq ft), which cannot be strata-titled or sold apart from the house. A laneway house counts as a new home, so BC Housing requires a licensed residential builder and home warranty insurance for it; a suite inside the house needs no home warranty.

Keeping a character house, typically one built before 1940, earns incentives in any R1-1 zone: up to 0.85 FSR against 0.6 for a single detached house, conversion into several units, or an infill house where the garage would normally stand, with the units rentable or strata-titled. Houses on the Vancouver Heritage Register, which lists almost 2,300 buildings and structures, can be altered outside, but their character-defining elements are expected to stay, and a listed house that also carries legal protection cannot be altered without a heritage alteration permit. Listed houses, and houses the City has flagged as potential additions, go through a heritage review with the permit application, and a heritage house may qualify for relaxed energy upgrades.

An addition in Vancouver cannot use the fast-track permit, and any new room has to be one your zoning specifically allows. Lots that were zoned RS have been in the R1-1 Residential Inclusive zone since October 17, 2023. There, floor space ratio (FSR), the floor area allowed against the size of the lot, caps how far a house can grow: 0.6 for a single detached house, 0.7 for a duplex and 0.85 for a retained character house. The same zone allows a multiplex of 3 to 6 strata units, or up to 8 secured rental units, depending on the size of the site, at up to 1.0 FSR.

Your total project cost changes what the City of Vancouver asks for. The fast track stops at $250,000, the energy upgrades start at $153,000 and widen at $255,000, and above $250,000 the City may require the sewer, storm or water services to be upgraded. In an older house, the hazardous materials survey can lead to asbestos abatement before work begins. After a consultation about your house, the scope and your budget, you get a written proposal. Any finish you have not chosen yet is carried as an allowance, and you choose a fixed price or open-book cost-plus.