- Joined
- Dec 10, 2007
- Messages
- 265
To those who haven`t heard, the City of Calgary is running a pilot grant program to install/upgrade secondary suites into homes. They are willing to pay 70% of the construction and development costs. Here`s a few links from the City:http://www.calgary.ca/DocGallery/BU/dba/br...es_brochure.pdf http://www.calgary.ca/DocGallery/BU/dba/br...equirements.pdf
I think any investor and indeed many home owners would like to have the City of Calgary pay 70% of your costs to install a secondary suite (i.e. basement, garage, etc). However, there`s of course a few conditions.
I attended the info session lastnight, and came away with the following:
1. The major obstacle is zoning. To change zoning, you must get approval from the city council. I talked with the zoning comissioner lastnight, and he said its difficult to predict whether the council will approve zoning changes. It does happen, but there appears to be little reason behind who gets approval and who doesn`t. The process takes $2,500 and 3-6 months.
2. A major drawback of the program is you must agree to rent at "average" rents for 5 years. At present, that is $855.00 (including utilities, doesn`t matter if its 1 or 2 bedrooms). I am not sure where they get this number from, but a nicely built new suite should command 200-300 more. However, those are the rules.
3. The major advantage I see is an increase in property value. By installing a legal suite, you allow the rent from that unit to be accepted by the banks. Therefore, when selling you`re property, the buyer would be allowed to include that rent in declarable income, and be able to qualify to spend more on your specific property. This would be especially true after the 5 years are up and rent can be increased.
4. There are other conditions that must be meet - must live in the home, safety considerations, parking etc but ultimately I think this program would be beneficial to those with proper zoning. However, if zoning isn`t there, I wouldn`t recommend this program at this time. I am very interested to see how the issue of secondary suites progresses in Calgary, as presently we lag behind Vancouver, Toronto, Edmonton and even Saskatoon on the issue.
Any further questions, feel free to contact me.
Thanks, Dave
I think any investor and indeed many home owners would like to have the City of Calgary pay 70% of your costs to install a secondary suite (i.e. basement, garage, etc). However, there`s of course a few conditions.
I attended the info session lastnight, and came away with the following:
1. The major obstacle is zoning. To change zoning, you must get approval from the city council. I talked with the zoning comissioner lastnight, and he said its difficult to predict whether the council will approve zoning changes. It does happen, but there appears to be little reason behind who gets approval and who doesn`t. The process takes $2,500 and 3-6 months.
2. A major drawback of the program is you must agree to rent at "average" rents for 5 years. At present, that is $855.00 (including utilities, doesn`t matter if its 1 or 2 bedrooms). I am not sure where they get this number from, but a nicely built new suite should command 200-300 more. However, those are the rules.
3. The major advantage I see is an increase in property value. By installing a legal suite, you allow the rent from that unit to be accepted by the banks. Therefore, when selling you`re property, the buyer would be allowed to include that rent in declarable income, and be able to qualify to spend more on your specific property. This would be especially true after the 5 years are up and rent can be increased.
4. There are other conditions that must be meet - must live in the home, safety considerations, parking etc but ultimately I think this program would be beneficial to those with proper zoning. However, if zoning isn`t there, I wouldn`t recommend this program at this time. I am very interested to see how the issue of secondary suites progresses in Calgary, as presently we lag behind Vancouver, Toronto, Edmonton and even Saskatoon on the issue.
Any further questions, feel free to contact me.
Thanks, Dave
