Building a Custom Home on a Vancouver Lot

Since October 17, 2023, every area of Vancouver that used to be in the City's single-house (RS) zones has been in the R1-1 (Residential Inclusive) zone. Under R1-1 you can build a single detached house as an outright approval use, or a single detached house with a secondary suite as a conditional approval use that the City reviews (R1-1 District Schedule, section 2.1, June 2026 version). A multiplex of 3 to 8 homes is a separate use on the same zone, covered in our multiplex guide.

The headline number for a house is the floor space ratio, which is floor area divided by lot area. R1-1 sets it at 0.60 for a house with or without a suite, and 0.70 for a duplex (section 3.2.1.1). On a 400 square metre lot that gives 240 square metres of floor area, or 2,583 square feet. On a 500 square metre lot it gives 300 square metres, or 3,229 square feet. A character house that stays in place may get a floor space ratio of 0.65 for an addition, under section 5.1(a) of the schedule.

The lot has to be big enough to start with. R1-1 asks for a site area of at least 306 square metres and a frontage of at least 7.3 metres for a house (section 3.2.2.1 and 3.2.2.2). The Director of Planning may reduce both if satisfied with liveability (section 3.2.2.9), but you cannot count on that reduction. Check the lot size and frontage on your title before you choose a designer. Our post on what the R1-1 rules allow a house goes through floor area, height, yards, basements, garages and trees in more depth.

A new house in R1-1 may be up to 11.5 metres and 3 storeys high (section 3.2.2.3), and the third storey must be a partial storey, no more than 50 percent of the floor below it (section 3.2.2.10). That is why a Vancouver R1-1 house often has a smaller top floor that steps back from the roof below. If the house meets the City's zero emission building standard, it may be 0.6 metres taller and 0.6 metres deeper under section 10.33.1, with other credits. A residential building of 3 storeys or less gets an extra 0.15 metres of height if the roof has at least 0.35 metres of insulation (section 10.1.3).

The yards around the house have fixed minimums. The front yard is at least 4.9 metres (section 3.2.2.4). The side yards are at least 1.2 metres (section 3.2.2.5), with a reduction to 1.0 metres allowed on a lot narrower than 10.1 metres (section 3.2.2.11). The rear yard is at least 10.7 metres deep (section 3.2.2.6). The rear yard is the one that surprises most owners: on a 36.6 metre deep lot it alone takes up 29 percent of the lot depth.

The buildings on the site may cover at most 50 percent of the lot (section 3.2.2.7). Impermeable materials, which include the buildings and any hard surfaces, may cover at most 75 percent (section 3.2.2.8). Parking areas may cover at most 30 percent of the lot (section 3.2.2.13). These three limits are measured separately, and they bite in different places during design. The 10.7 metre rear yard sets the back wall; the 50 percent coverage sets the floor plate; the 75 percent impermeable limit sets the driveway, patio and walkways.

A few things that project out from the house do not count against the yard. Eaves, gutters, sills and chimneys may project up to 1.0 metres into a required yard, as long as they stay 0.7 metres clear of a side property line (section 10.8.1). A bay window may project up to 0.54 metres. A front porch or entry may project up to 1.8 metres into the front yard (section 10.8.3). A fence may be up to 1.9 metres tall in a required yard, but at most 1.2 metres in a required front yard (section 10.10.3 and 10.10.4).

The 240 square metres on a 400 square metre lot is the ceiling. What the City counts, and what it leaves out, is set in section 4.1 of the R1-1 District Schedule, and that is the part homeowners often get wrong on day one.

The City counts all floors, measured to the outside of the exterior walls, including any accessory building (section 4.1.1). Stairways are counted on every floor they go through. A room where the floor to floor height is more than 3.7 metres is counted twice in the area below the extra height. The basement counts. The cellar counts. A main floor great room with a tall ceiling counts twice if the ceiling is over 3.7 metres.

What the City leaves out is listed in the same section. A laneway house is left out of the house's floor area, because it is a separate use. Up to 48 square metres of parking, loading or bike floors in an accessory or rear building are left out, with each space at most 7.3 metres long. Patios and roof decks are left out. Balconies and decks are left out up to 8 percent of the permitted floor area. Entries, porches and verandahs are left out up to 13 percent combined with the balcony allowance. A sloped-ceiling attic space, under a roof pitch of at least 7:12, is left out between 1.2 and 2.3 metres of ceiling height, up to 10 percent of the permitted floor area. Unconditioned space under a porch, with no interior access, is left out below 2.0 metres.

Two things follow from this. First, if you want a garage inside the house, know that it counts against the floor area on a lot with a lane. A detached garage of up to 48 square metres in the rear yard does not. Second, the sloped-attic exclusion rewards a steep roof: the same square footage is worth more if it is under a 7:12 pitch than under a 4:12 pitch. These are design decisions, not finishing decisions, so make them before the drawings go to the City.

The City of Vancouver's "Build a new duplex, single detached house, or laneway house" page lists the steps the City expects you to follow (City of Vancouver, archive copy March 10, 2026). The steps below follow that order.

Trees. A permit is needed to remove a private tree that is at least 20 centimetres in diameter (64 centimetres in circumference) measured 1.4 metres above the base, or a multi-stem tree where the two or three largest stems add up to at least 20 centimetres, or a tree that was a condition of a plan or permit. Tree removal for a development project is approved as part of the development and building permit, with an arborist report under section 7.2 of the Protection of Trees By-law. One of the allowed reasons is that the tree is within the building envelope on the issued permit. For any tree larger than 20 centimetres in diameter that comes down, a replacement tree is required (City of Vancouver, tree removal permit, archive copy February 9, 2026). The R1-1 schedule's front yard tree rule (section 2.2.1) does not apply to a plain single detached house without a suite, but it does apply to a house with a secondary suite.

A secondary suite inside the house is a conditional approval use in R1-1 (section 2.1). Under section 10.20.3 of Section 10 of the Zoning and Development By-law, a bedroom or an entire suite may be in the basement. No part of a living room, kitchen, dining room or bedroom may be 1.2 metres or more below the finished grade of the adjoining ground. That rule drives where the suite's main living space sits, and whether a sunken entrance under section 4.3.2 of the R1-1 schedule is worth building. The provincial small-scale multi-unit housing law requires Vancouver to allow at least one secondary suite or one detached accessory dwelling unit (such as a laneway house) in zones that used to be single family.

A laneway house in the rear yard is a separate use with its own rules. The R1-1 schedule's rear-building definition under section 2.2.13 sets accessory buildings to 4.6 metres high, in the rear yard, at least 3.1 metres from the ultimate centre line of a lane and 0.6 metres from the ultimate rear property line, with a total of 48 square metres of accessory floor area. The laneway house itself is not counted against the house's floor area. See our laneway home rules post for the longer version, and read it before you decide whether to build one on the same project.

The City's Parking By-law, section 4.2.1(a), caps the number of parking spaces a single detached house or duplex outside a transit-oriented area may have, by the width of the site at the rear property line. Up to 10.0 metres wide gives 2 spaces. From 10.0 to under 12.2 metres gives 3. From 12.2 to under 14.5 metres gives 4. From 14.5 metres and up gives 5. These are maximums, not minimums (Parking By-law section 4, archive copy August 3, 2026).

Every parking space provided for a dwelling use needs an energized outlet capable of Level 2 charging, under section 4.11.1 of the same by-law. Design the electrical panel for that load on day one. A Level 2 outlet drawn in late is the kind of change that moves the main service, the subpanel and the wire run through finished walls, which costs more than installing the right panel in rough-in.

A new home built in British Columbia must be covered by home warranty insurance, except in a few cases such as an owner-building their own home under a provincial authorization. The scheme is set out in the Homeowner Protection Act Regulation (B.C. Reg. 29/99). It has three tiers that run from the date of occupancy, and together they are known as 2-5-10.

The first tier is 12 months on any defect in materials and labour, plus building code violations meeting the criteria in section 4.01(2) of the regulation. A strata gets 15 months on the common property and the strata's shared assets. The second tier is 24 months on the electrical, plumbing, heating, ventilation and air conditioning delivery and distribution systems, on exterior cladding, caulking, windows and doors where the defect could lead to detachment or material damage, and on any defect that makes the home unfit to live in.

The third tier is 5 years on the building envelope, defined in the regulation as the assemblies, components and materials of a new home which are intended to separate and protect the interior space of the new home from the adverse effects of exterior climatic conditions. Coverage triggers on unintended water penetration that causes, or is likely to cause, material damage. The fourth tier is 10 years on structure, which the regulation lists as defects in materials, labour or design that result in the failure of a load-bearing part of the home, or any defect that makes the home unsafe to live in. All figures and definitions are from the regulation itself (BC Laws, B.C. Reg. 29/99).

The warranty is sold by a provincial list of approved providers. Costar does not issue warranty insurance; the insurer does. Ask the builder to show you the warranty certificate and the provider's name before you sign the contract, and keep a copy with the project binder you receive at handover. Our post on BC home warranty for a new custom home in Vancouver covers the coverage limits and how to check a builder.

We price a custom home only after we have seen your lot, because each lot and each design is different. These are the things that move the budget up or down. For the five build steps and what changes the price, see our post on custom home costs in Metro Vancouver.

The lot itself. A sloped site or soft soil needs more digging and stronger foundations than a flat, firm one. A high water table drives the drainage design and whether a cellar is feasible. A lot with large protected trees loses building envelope to the tree protection zone, and the arborist report is paid work that happens before design. Read our lot and title checks before you buy post before you make an offer.

The design. The number of storeys, the shape of the roof, the window count and the ceiling heights all change the total. A room with a floor-to-floor over 3.7 metres is counted twice against your floor space ratio, so a tall room is a design choice that spends the lot's size budget. A simple roof costs less to build and leaks less often than a complicated roof. A larger window is more expensive than a smaller one at the same wall, and each new window is a new place for water to find a way in.

The finishes. The specification lists Costar prepares at pre-construction stage set the real cost: the type of flooring, cabinetry, countertops, tile, plumbing fixtures, lighting, appliances and the interior millwork. Our post on finishes that last in a family home covers which choices repay the extra cost over 10 and 20 years, and which ones look good at move-in and tire quickly.

City charges. The City collects a Development Cost Levy on the issued permit, plus permit fees, damage deposits and connection charges. These are set in the City's conditions letter before the permit is issued, so take them from that letter when you budget. Treat the amount quoted in any older post, including on this site, as out of date until you have the current conditions letter in hand.

The contract type. A fixed-price contract and a cost-plus arrangement allocate cost risk in different ways, and that choice changes the margin a builder prices in on day one. Our fixed-price vs cost-plus vs construction management post explains which contract fits which project. Costar's custom homes are typically delivered under a cost-plus arrangement for transparency (Our Process).

The team. The architect's fees, the structural engineer's fees, the geotechnical report, the arborist report, the surveyor's report, the civil engineer's grade and drainage drawings and the energy consultant's calculations are all paid separately from the construction cost. On a custom home, consultant fees typically run from 7 to 15 percent of the construction cost, and the mix depends on how complex the site is. Costar can introduce you to the design and consultant teams we have worked with, or work from drawings prepared by a team of your choice.