Buyers

First, some light house keeping before we start this blog: The City of Edmonton does not have a half duplex category, they refer to it as semi detached.

When I meet home buyer clients for the first time, one of my first questions I ask is “what are your must haves.” One respond makes me cringe every time. “The half duplex I want NEED to have is one with a separate entrance for a secondary suite so I can have the rental income.” I believe this idea comes from watching HGTV which is frequently recorded in Toronto and buyer see a beautiful rental suite that allows them to live upstairs for $400.00 a month. Let’s start with the obvious the zoning bylaws in Toronto are completely different in Edmonton. Fact: At this time there Is NO, and I repeat NO half duplex in Edmonton with a legal secondary suite. If anyone tells you, they can build this unicorn for you or better yet they will give you a separate entrance so you can build it out yourself be warned they are lying to you or trying to get a sale and putting all the risk on you once you build it. I hear time and time again; the builder wouldn’t put in a separate entrance if I couldn’t put in a suite. Nobody likes to listen to the truth, but the truth is builders are now placing separate entrances on half duplexes on the hope that the city allows secondary suites in the future. The problem with that mentality is nobody knows IF the city does approve secondary suites in half duplexes will it be city wide, only in certain zones or in certain locations? Now there are those individuals who do not care if the suite is illegal when purchasing. Be warned if you get caught, and the city comes knocking there are significant financial risk let’s go over a couple.

You're renting out you illegal...