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Rental Income Suites - ADU Builders
Garden suites, laneway homes, basement and secondary suites built for rental income suites across the 30 municipalities of the Greater Toronto Area - zoning review, permit drawings and construction handled by one team.
Why Rental Income Suites Chooses GTA ADU Builders
Key Takeaways
- Key features: Detached garden suite rented as a self-contained one-bedroom, Legal basement apartment with separate entrance and egress window, Laneway house tenanted year-round for long-term rental income
Homeowners across the GTA who want a second dwelling that pays for itself. We size, permit and build a legal rental suite on your existing lot so the unit meets Ontario Building Code fire separation and egress rules and can be tenanted from the day occupancy is signed off.
Common Use Cases
- Detached garden suite rented as a self-contained one-bedroom
- Legal basement apartment with separate entrance and egress window
- Laneway house tenanted year-round for long-term rental income
- Second-suite registration and fire-code retrofit on an older home
Key takeaways
- Homeowners who want a second dwelling that pays for itself - sized, permitted and built so the unit can be tenanted the day occupancy is signed off rather than months later on an as-built correction.
- Legality is the whole product: an unregistered unit cannot be insured properly, cannot be counted as income by a lender, and cannot be defended at the Landlord and Tenant Board.
- The number that matters is not the build cost but the gap between monthly carrying cost and realistic local rent for that unit size - which changes with the municipality, the unit type and whether the suite is separately metered.
- Budget eight to fourteen months end to end before the first rent cheque: four to eight weeks of permit review plus four to eight months of construction.
Homeowners across the GTA who want a second dwelling that pays for itself. We size, permit and build a legal rental suite on your existing lot so the unit meets Ontario Building Code fire separation and egress rules and can be tenanted from the day occupancy is signed off. Whether the unit is a detached garden suite, a laneway house or a legal basement apartment, that legality is the whole product: an unregistered unit cannot be insured properly, cannot be counted as income by a lender, and cannot be defended at the Landlord and Tenant Board.
The number that matters here is not the build cost but the gap between the monthly carrying cost and realistic local rent for that unit size. That calculation changes with the municipality, the unit type and whether the suite is separately metered. We size the unit against what the lot allows and what the surrounding rental market actually pays, then build to the standard that lets the unit be tenanted the day occupancy is signed off rather than months later on an as-built correction.
Use cases
- Detached garden suite rented as a self-contained one-bedroom
- Legal basement apartment with separate entrance and egress window
- Laneway house tenanted year-round for long-term rental income
- Second-suite registration and fire-code retrofit on an older home
What changed the economics is Bill 23, the More Homes Built Faster Act (2022), which obliges Ontario municipalities to permit up to three residential units as-of-right on most serviced lots already holding a detached, semi-detached or townhouse dwelling. Before that, a second dwelling unit usually meant a rezoning application - six to twelve months, expensive, refusable. The provincial rules are O. Reg. 299/19 on additional residential units, amended November 2024, with O. Reg. 462/24 harmonising municipal by-laws against province-wide garden-suite criteria. In practice the as-of-right split is main house, one internal suite, and one detached unit.
Cost sets the yield. Detached suites of 500 to 600 sq ft run roughly $200,000 to $350,000 in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area - the figure Resimate CEO Sarah Cipkar gave CBC News in July 2025 - or $300 to $600 per square foot depending on site access and finish. Internal work is cheaper; the category as a whole spans $40K to $450K. Permit review runs four to eight weeks and construction four to eight months, so budget eight to fourteen months end to end before the first rent cheque.
Two things decide whether a rental suite is viable before design starts. Since 1 April 2024 the amended Conservation Authorities Act requires TRCA or Credit Valley Conservation sign-off inside regulated areas, which is a real scheduling risk on ravine and Oak Ridges Moraine lots. And servicing capacity, lot coverage and setbacks still vary municipality to municipality even under harmonised provincial rules. We carry WSIB registration and $2M general liability and issue a clearance certificate on request - under the Construction Act and the WSIA you are liable for an unregistered contractor's premiums.
Rental Income Suites - Permits and Approvals by Municipality
Approval costs and lot conditions in the GTA municipalities where we build most often for this use.
| 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.
Recommended Unit Types
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about our services.
Homeowners across the GTA who want a second dwelling that pays for itself. We size, permit and build a legal rental suite on your existing lot so the unit meets Ontario Building Code fire separation and egress rules and can be tenanted from the day occupancy is signed off. The situations we see most often: detached garden suite rented as a self-contained one-bedroom; legal basement apartment with separate entrance and egress window; laneway house tenanted year-round for long-term rental income; second-suite registration and fire-code retrofit on an older home.
Related service: Laneway Homes
Our estimate band on a 700 sq ft reference unit runs $268,000-$359,500 in Brock to $281,500-$377,000 in East York, about $383-$402 per square foot. This scope involves a new foundation, new servicing and a full building envelope. Municipal approvals are quoted on top and separately, between $5,500-$10,000 including Brampton registration and Peel charges and $9,000-$16,000 including Peel Region and septic permit charges depending on the municipality.
Related service: Our ADU services
On most serviced GTA lots, yes. Bill 23 and O. Reg. 299/19 permit up to three residential units as-of-right on a lot already holding a detached, semi-detached or townhouse dwelling.
What actually decides it is the local by-law's rear-yard coverage, setback and height limits, plus conservation-authority screening (TRCA, Credit Valley, LSRCA) where the lot is in a regulated area. We check all of that before design starts, not after.
Related service: Our ADU services
It depends on the lot rather than on the preference. A rear yard with clear access supports a detached garden suite or laneway house; an existing garage on a sound slab makes a conversion the cheapest legal route; a full-height basement with a walk-out is the fastest path to a permitted interior suite. We give the answer at the feasibility review, with the by-law citation behind it.
Related service: Laneway Homes
Eight to fourteen months end to end - design, four to eight weeks of plan review, then construction - across all 30 GTA municipalities we serve. Excavation is scheduled inside the local building season; interior work continues through winter.
Related service: Our ADU services
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Building for rental income suites? As adu builders across the GTA we scope the ADU that fits your lot - zoning check, permit drawings and construction.