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Garden Suites
Garden Suites designed, permitted and built across the 30 municipalities of the Greater Toronto Area - zoning review, permit drawings and construction handled by one team.
Garden Suites - Overview
Key Takeaways
- Key features: Works on lots with no laneway access, Angular plane and setback compliance, Tree protection and arborist coordination
Detached garden suites for backyards without laneway access - permitted under Toronto's garden suite by-law and built as a complete, independently serviced home.
Features & Specifications
- Works on lots with no laneway access
- Angular plane and setback compliance
- Tree protection and arborist coordination
- Independent servicing from the main house
- One- to three-bedroom layouts
Key takeaways
- A garden suite is a detached second dwelling in the rear yard of a lot with no lane access, reached by a walkway from the street - the most widely available detached ADU form in the GTA.
- Garden suites became legal city-wide in Toronto on 1 July 2022 (By-law 89-2022), and O. Reg. 462/24 harmonised municipal by-laws province-wide from November 2024.
- With no lane frontage, design concentrates on three things: a legal walkway and emergency access route, a services trench, and rear-yard setbacks and soft-landscaping ratios that vary by municipality.
- A 500-600 sq ft single-storey suite runs $200,000-$350,000 in the GTHA; Toronto requires no parking space, and Mississauga refunds its $1,050 ARU fee after final inspection.
A garden suite is a detached second dwelling in the rear yard of a lot with no lane access - reached by a walkway from the street side rather than from a public lane. It is the most widely available detached ADU form in the GTA, because the vast majority of suburban lots in Mississauga, Brampton, Markham, Vaughan and Pickering have a back yard but no lane behind it.
Garden suites became legal city-wide in Toronto on 1 July 2022 through amendments to Zoning By-law 569-2013 (By-law 89-2022), further amended by By-laws 847-2025 and 849-2025. Province-wide, O. Reg. 462/24 came into force in November 2024 to harmonise municipal by-laws against a common set of garden-suite criteria, and Bill 23 (2022) requires municipalities to permit up to three residential units as-of-right on most serviced lots already holding a detached, semi-detached or townhouse dwelling. Toronto sets no parking requirement for a garden suite.
What this includes
- Rear-yard siting study - setbacks, lot coverage and soft-landscaping ratio checked against the specific municipal by-law
- Legal walkway and emergency access route from street to unit door, designed for lots with no lane
- Services trench from the main house or street connection, priced before contract rather than discovered on site
- Built under O. Reg. 462/24 harmonised garden-suite criteria and Bill 23 as-of-right permission
- Single-storey 500-600 sq ft layouts, with no parking space required in Toronto
- Mississauga ARU permit fee (about $1,050 for ~600 sq ft, 2025 rate) filed for full refund at final inspection
- Conservation authority approval handled for TRCA and Credit Valley regulated ravine lots
- Ontario Building Code construction with SB-10/SB-12 energy compliance in the permit package
The people who build them are homeowners with a large enough rear yard and a specific use in mind: a rental unit, a parent moving closer, an adult child staying home longer, or a home office that is genuinely separate from the house. Because a garden suite has no lane frontage, the design work concentrates on three things - a legal walkway and emergency access route from the street to the unit door, a servicing trench from the main house or the street connection, and rear-yard setbacks and soft-landscaping ratios that vary municipality to municipality.
Typical units are 500 to 600 sq ft on a single storey, which in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area costs roughly $200,000 to $350,000 to build, or $300 to $600 per square foot depending on site access and finish. Excavating a services trench across an established yard is the cost line most owners underestimate. Permit review runs four to eight weeks; construction four to eight months. In Mississauga the additional residential unit permit fee for a roughly 600 sq ft suite is about $1,050 at the 2025 rate - and the city refunds that fee in full once construction passes final inspection.
Construction is to the Ontario Building Code, with SB-10/SB-12 energy compliance filed in the permit package. Lots inside a TRCA or Credit Valley Conservation regulated area need conservation authority approval, mandatory for additional residential units since 1 April 2024, and this is the most common cause of a delayed start on ravine lots in Toronto, Vaughan and Richmond Hill.
If your lot backs onto a public lane, a laneway home is usually the better form - the lane supplies access and servicing. If the rear yard cannot take a detached building, a basement secondary suite is the alternative inside the existing footprint.
Garden Suites - Permits and Approvals by Municipality
What approval typically costs, and what the lots look like, in the GTA municipalities we build in most.
| Municipality | Typical approval fees | Lot typology |
|---|---|---|
| Toronto | $8,000-$14,000 in permit, development and plan-review fees | Narrow downtown lots with rear public laneways - Toronto has over 300 km of them, more laneway frontage than any other Canadian city. |
| Brampton | $5,500-$10,000 including Brampton registration and Peel charges | Deep newer-subdivision lots, many with an existing unregistered basement apartment that must be brought to Ontario Building Code fire-separation standard. |
| Mississauga | $6,500-$11,000 in City of Mississauga and Region of Peel charges | Large 1970s-90s subdivision lots with attached garages; garage conversions and rear coach houses are both common outcomes. |
| York | $8,000-$14,000 under the City of Toronto fee schedule | Older narrow semi-detached lots on a laneway grid, with frequent shared-driveway conditions that must be resolved before permit. |
| Etobicoke | $8,000-$14,000 under the City of Toronto fee schedule | Split personality - laneway-served lakeshore grid in Mimico and New Toronto, versus large treed lots in The Kingsway where garden suites dominate. |
| Ajax | $7,000-$12,000 including Durham Region charges | Compact 1990s-2000s subdivision lots where the required 1.2 m side-yard construction access sets the maximum module width we can crane in. |
| King | $9,000-$16,500 including York Region and septic charges | Estate and agricultural parcels, many over an acre, on private well and septic with moraine core-area restrictions. |
| North York | $8,000-$14,000 under the City of Toronto fee schedule | Deep post-war bungalow lots, commonly 50 ft × 120 ft, with rear yards large enough for a detached garden suite plus the required 1.5 m separation. |
Fee bands are indicative, drawn from project experience - confirm current tariffs with the municipality before budgeting.
Related Unit Types
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about our services.
Detached garden suites for backyards without laneway access - permitted under Toronto's garden suite by-law and built as a complete, independently serviced home. Concretely that means: works on lots with no laneway access; angular plane and setback compliance; tree protection and arborist coordination; independent servicing from the main house. One contract covers design, permit and construction, so there is no handoff between a designer and a builder halfway through.
Related service: Our ADU services
On a 700 sq ft reference unit our estimate band runs $268,000-$359,500 in Brock up to $281,500-$377,000 in East York - roughly $383 to $402 per square foot. The spread is not a markup: this work involves a new foundation, new servicing and a full building envelope, and the per-municipality difference comes from approval fees, frost depth and snow load. Final pricing follows a site visit.
Related service: Our ADU services
Yes - a building permit is required in every GTA municipality. Bill 23 (More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022) and O. Reg. 299/19 permit up to three residential units as-of-right on most serviced lots, so a rezoning application is usually not needed.
Municipal approval costs range from $5,500-$10,000 including Brampton registration and Peel charges in Brampton to $9,000-$16,000 including Peel Region and septic permit charges in Caledon, quoted separately from construction. Plan review typically takes four to eight weeks.
Related service: ADU Building Permit
All 30 municipalities of the Greater Toronto Area, from Toronto out to Clarington. Each one has its own by-law, fee schedule and review stream, and we file into the local one - the municipal page for your address carries that city's approval band, frost depth and building season.
Related service: Our ADU services
Eight to fourteen months is the honest end-to-end range: design and drawings, four to eight weeks of plan review, then construction. Because this work is a new foundation, new servicing and a full building envelope, the build phase is the part that moves most between projects. Excavation is scheduled inside the local building season, and interior work carries on through winter.
Related service: Our ADU services
Ready to Get Started?
Ready to start your garden suites project? Send us your address and we will tell you what your lot allows, what it costs and how long the permits take.