Multigenerational Homes in BC: A Growing Trend

Why it is happening here

Three reasons, usually together. Housing costs, which make a shared $1.6 million house with two kitchens more sensible than two separate households. Care, in both directions: grandparents with young children, adult children with aging parents, and a hospital, Peace Arch, within the community. And culture: many of the families moving to South Surrey come from traditions where three generations under one roof is simply how a family lives. The housing stock here, with its large 1980s and 1990s homes and generous lots, suits it better than most of Metro Vancouver.

The layouts that actually work

• A legal secondary suite with its own entrance. The most common solution. A separate kitchen, bathroom, laundry if possible, and a door that does not go through the main living room. Many South Surrey basement-entry homes were built for exactly this.
• A main-floor bedroom and full bathroom. For aging parents, stairs are the enemy. Ranchers and homes with a main-floor primary suite go to the top of my list.
• A coach house or garden suite. Surrey permits detached accessory dwellings on many lots. It gives the most independence, and it is the most expensive to add if it is not already there.
• Two primary suites. Newer Grandview Heights homes sometimes have one up and one down. It avoids the hierarchy that comes with one family in the basement.

What does not work: an unpermitted suite with a shared furnace and one electrical panel, a basement with seven-foot ceilings and one small window, or a plan that assumes everyone will share one kitchen indefinitely. Families tell me they will. Six months later they call about renovating.

The rules that help

BC's small-scale multi-unit housing legislation requires municipalities to allow three or four units on most single-family lots, and Surrey and White Rock have updated their zoning to comply. In practice that means a home with a suite plus a coach house is now permitted on lots where it once needed a rezoning. Check the specific lot's zoning and servicing with the city before you count on it. Separately, the federal Multigenerational Home Renovation Tax Credit refunds 15 percent of eligible renovation costs, up to $50,000 of spending, for creating a secondary unit for a senior or an adult with a disability. That is up to $7,500 back on a suite build. Confirm eligibility with your accountant before you start.

Financing and ownership

Lenders will usually count a portion of legal suite rental income toward qualification, even if the tenant is your mother and the rent is nominal, but only for a legal suite. Who goes on title matters: joint tenancy versus tenants in common, who claims the principal residence exemption, what happens on a death or a divorce. The Home Owner Grant applies once per property. These are lawyer and accountant conversations, and I push families to have them before the offer, not after, because they occasionally change who the buyer is.

What I look for on a showing

• A second entrance that does not pass through the main living space.
• Ceiling height and window size in the lower level.
• A main-floor bedroom and full bath, or the room to create one.
• Separate laundry, or a place to put it.
• Parking for three or four cars without blocking each other in.
• Lot size and zoning that allow a coach house later, even if nobody plans one today.

The short version

• Multigenerational buying is now common on the Peninsula, driven by cost, care and culture.
• Legal suites with separate entrances, main-floor bedrooms and coach houses are the layouts that last.
• BC's small-scale housing rules and the federal renovation tax credit make adding a unit easier.
• Settle title, financing and the principal residence question with a lawyer before you offer.

If you are buying for more than one generation, tell me who is moving in and what each of them needs. The right house looks different for every family, and I would rather find it than sell you the one with the biggest basement.