Laneway housing is something fairly new to the City of Toronto. Therefore, lenders typically take a little longer to adapt and become aggressive on their programs for it. Currently, lenders can refinance homes up to 80% loan to value at best pricing. However, this changes when looking at laneway housing.
Financing a Laneway or Garden Suite: Considerations and Solutions
Interview with Lanescape Construction’s Joe Camilleri
In this blog post we welcome our new team member Joe Camilleri, Lanescape’s Construction Director. Joe oversees all aspects of the construction process from initial design to project completion. In this Q&A style blog post, learn more about Lanescape Construction, Joe’s history in the architecture industry, and why he has made the transition to laneway and garden suite construction management.
HST Rebates on your Laneway Home
Building a laneway home is a significant commitment that requires time and resources. You need to ensure you hire the appropriate architect, builder, and tradespeople to make your laneway home dream a reality.
Regardless of why you are building a laneway home, whether it be to age in place, keep an elderly parent nearby, enable a child to enter the real estate market, or generate rental income, you must be aware of the tax implications and the significant rebates available to you. Taking advantage of these rebates could result in thousands of dollars in your pocket.
Garden Suite Bylaw
After much anticipation, an as-of-right zoning bylaw for garden suites is now available to the public. The requirements set forth have been refined from the City Planning recommendations published in June of 2021 following consultation with community groups and municipal stakeholders.
Those familiar with the laneway suite zoning by-laws will recognize some of the requirements set forth. The garden suite policy is loosely based on the laneway suite framework, though there are several fundamental differences in response to a non-laneway-oriented condition.
Our team has summarized the bylaw requirements here:
Garden Suites By-Law: Appealed
On February 2nd, 2022, Toronto City Council voted 19-5 in favour of the new Garden Suite zoning by-law amendment, effectively permitting homeowners across the city to construct detached secondary suites to the rear of their properties through a streamlined approvals process. Following the adoption of any motion by city council, there is a mandatory period where only the minister of municipal affairs may file an appeal prior to motions formal ratification into a by-law. The appeal period for garden suites was set to expire on Monday March 7th, 2022.
Our team received unfortunate news from the city yesterday that there was an appeal filed against the garden suite draft by-law.