Contents 10 sections
Vancouver has issued building permits for about 340 multiplex projects since the first one on June 4, 2024, holding roughly 1,200 new homes. More than 600 projects had been submitted by May 2026, so a little over half have made it to a permit. Most are three or four homes split between a front and a back building. A permit took a median of 192 days in 2026, longer than a duplex or a laneway house.
What a multiplex is, in plain words
Since fall 2023, most single-family lots in Vancouver have been zoned R1-1. That zone lets you build a multiplex: three to six homes you can sell separately. Or you can build up to eight if every home is a rental, and the owner can live in one. The total floor area can be up to the lot’s size, a floor space ratio of 1.00. How many homes you can build depends on the lot:
| Homes | Smallest lot allowed | Narrowest frontage allowed |
|---|---|---|
| 3 or 4 | 306 m² (3,294 sq ft) | 10.0 m (33 ft) |
| 5 | 464 m² (4,994 sq ft) | 13.4 m (44 ft) |
| 6, or up to 8 rentals | 557 m² (5,996 sq ft) | 15.1 m (50 ft) |
The front building can be three storeys and 11.5 m tall. A back building is limited to two storeys and 8.5 m.
What we found
We read every new-building permit issued by the City of Vancouver up to October 2, 2026 that mentions a multiplex: 594 permits. Most projects get two permits, one for the front building and one for the back, so we grouped them by lot.
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339
Multiplex projects have building permits: 31 in 2024, 181 in 2025 and 127 so far in 2026.
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~1,200
They hold roughly 1,200 homes. We counted 1,069 homes in the 301 projects whose permits spell out the number.
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77%
Three and four homes are the norm. Of the projects with three or more homes listed, 37% have three, 40% have four, 9% have five and 14% have six or more.
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78%
Include a three-storey building.
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0.94
Parking is light: about 0.94 spaces per home where the permit lists parking.
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192 days
Permits are getting slower: a median of 122 days in 2024, 171 in 2025 and 192 in 2026. That compares with 130 days for duplexes and 99 for laneway houses this year.
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54
The east side leads. Hastings-Sunrise has the most projects (54), then Kensington-Cedar Cottage (36), Dunbar-Southlands (27), Kerrisdale (26), Victoria-Fraserview and Renfrew-Collingwood (25 each).
- Busiest quarters
T-City analysis of City of Vancouver open data: 594 new-building permits mentioning a multiplex, grouped into projects by lot, to October 2, 2026
From application to permit
The City and outside trackers have published application counts along the way. Put next to our permit count, they show the program growing fast, then settling down:
| Date | Multiplex projects | Source |
|---|---|---|
| March 7, 2024 | 49 applications | More Housing tracker |
| March 31, 2025 | About 370 applications, about 1,500 homes | City of Vancouver memo to Council |
| May 2026 | More than 600 submitted, more than 280 approved | City staff, reported with Council Motion 9 |
| October 2, 2026 | About 339 with building permits, roughly 1,200 homes | T-City analysis of City permit data |
Applications ran at about 320 in the year to March 2025, then about 230 in the 14 months after. Interest is still strong, but the first rush is over.
Planned projects versus permitted ones
The City’s 2025 count of applications and our count of permits show a similar mix, with one difference: six-home projects.
| Homes per project | Share of applications, to March 2025 (City) | Share of permitted projects (T-City) |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | 29% | 37% |
| 4 | 45% | 40% |
| 5 | 9% | 9% |
| 6 or more | 18% | 14% |
Our read is that bigger projects take longer to reach a permit, and some get scaled back along the way. Six homes need a 50 ft lot and usually a more complex building. And on large lots west of Ontario Street, strata projects also have to give 5% of their floor area to social housing, or pay cash instead.
Why permits take longer than for a duplex
A multiplex is two buildings, often with a three-storey front. It fits more homes under one floor-area limit. And it has family-size rules: a strata fourplex needs at least two homes with two or more bedrooms. Each of those adds review time. The City’s 2025 memo also said a large share of multiplex applications were courtyard designs (70%), which usually means two buildings and more site planning. For the duplex side of the comparison, see how long it takes to build a duplex.
Rules under review
On May 20, 2026, a Council committee approved Motion 9, asking staff to review the multiplex rules after early experience. The review covers building size and massing, setbacks, tree canopy and neighbours’ privacy, and lines the rules up with the Province’s Bill 25. Staff were told to keep things predictable for applicants. No report-back date was set.
What it means if you own a lot
- Measure your frontage first. 10 m gets you three or four homes. 15.1 m gets you six. A lot feasibility study confirms it before you pay for design.
- Plan for about six months of permitting in 2026, not three.
- Check which side of Ontario Street you’re on if your lot is 623 m² or bigger and 17.1 m wide or more, because of the social housing requirement.
- Decide strata or rental early. Rental allows up to eight homes, but you can’t sell them separately. If you’re selling, budget for strata titling.
- Consider applying before the review lands, if your design depends on today’s massing rules.
Our duplex vs triplex vs multiplex guide compares the options lot by lot.
What we expect in 2027
- About 150 to 180 multiplex projects permitted, close to the 2025 to 2026 pace, as the slower flow of applications works through.
- Permit times stay near six months until the City finishes its review.
- Rule changes on massing and trees from the Motion 9 review, most likely late in 2027. Projects already in the system should keep today’s rules.
- Six-home projects stay rare, below one in five.
Sources
Every outside figure traces to one of these pages, all opened on October 14, 2026. T-City’s own analysis uses the City of Vancouver open datasets. Rates and fee schedules change, so we recheck them for your lot during feasibility.
- City of Vancouver Open Data: Issued building permits
- Vancouver R1-1 District Schedule (June 2026)
- City of Vancouver: Memo to Mayor and Council on the R1-1 zone, May 29, 2025
- VanPlex: Vancouver Motion 9, multiplex rules to be reviewed (June 2, 2026)
- More Housing: Multiplex applications in Vancouver (March 15, 2024)
- T-City: Duplex vs triplex vs multiplex in Vancouver