Burnaby & Tri-Cities · British Columbia
Laneway Homes in Burnaby & the Tri-Cities
Metro Vancouver's inner suburbs are opening up fast to backyard housing. With large lots, strong rental demand, and provincial legislation pushing municipalities to allow more homes per lot, Burnaby and the Tri-Cities are among the best places in BC to add a laneway home or garden suite.
01 — Bylaws & feasibility
What Burnaby & Tri-Cities allows
Short answer: Burnaby has had no maximum floor area for these homes since June 2024; height, setbacks and lot coverage set the limit. Port Coquitlam caps an accessory dwelling unit at 90 square metres, Coquitlam counts a detached second home as one of up to four dwelling units on the lot and sizes it by floor area ratio, and Port Moody deleted its detached accessory dwelling category in June 2024 in favour of small-scale multi-unit housing with no unit size restriction. None of the four requires lane access.
Burnaby, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, and Port Moody all permit a detached backyard home, and none of them require lane access. Past that they are genuinely different, so the four should not be read as one set of rules. Burnaby removed maximum floor area entirely in June 2024 and now regulates these as rear principal buildings, with height, setbacks and lot coverage defining what fits. Port Coquitlam caps an accessory dwelling unit at 90 square metres and requires sprinklers and a firefighting access path. Coquitlam's small-scale residential zones permit up to four dwelling units on a lot, and a detached backyard home is simply one of them; how much you can build is set by floor area ratio rather than by a floor-area cap on the individual unit. Its 90-square-metre carriage house rule survives only in the RT-1 legacy zone. Port Moody deleted its detached accessory dwelling unit category outright and folded these into small-scale multi-unit housing with no unit size restriction. We handle the feasibility review municipality by municipality.
| Lane access | Not required in any of the four. Burnaby and Port Moody both say so explicitly |
| Burnaby | Regulated as a rear principal building in the R1 Small-Scale Multi-Unit Housing District. No maximum floor area since June 2024; height, setbacks and lot coverage define what fits. Rear buildings run to 7.5 metres with a sloping roof, 7.0 flat, over two storeys inclusive of the basement |
| Coquitlam | Up to four dwelling units on a lot in the R-1 small-scale residential zone, and three where an R-2 lot is 280 square metres or smaller. Size is set by floor area ratio, 0.65 for one or two units and 0.75 for three or four, not by a floor-area cap on the individual unit. The carriage house rule survives only in the RT-1 legacy zone, where the cap is 90 square metres or the floor area of the principal building, whichever is less |
| Port Coquitlam | An accessory dwelling unit is capped at 90 square metres excluding an attached garage, to two storeys. It must be sprinklered and needs a firefighting access path at least 1 metre wide to the street |
| Port Moody | The detached accessory dwelling unit category was deleted in June 2024 by Amendment Bylaw 3460 and replaced by an additional dwelling unit under small-scale multi-unit housing. There is no unit size restriction. In the RS1 zone density is a floor area ratio of 0.7 for three dwelling units, rising by 0.1 for each additional unit to 1.0 for six; how many units a lot may have is set by the city's SSMUH map |
| Why this matters | These four diverged after the province's small-scale multi-unit housing legislation, so a figure from one is not a guide to another. We confirm the rules against your actual municipality |
Our Lower Mainland laneway site, kyraxlaneway.com, covers two of these four, each with a free address check: Burnaby's backyard home rules, zone by zone, and Coquitlam's garden cottage and carriage house rules. It does not cover Port Coquitlam or Port Moody.
02 — Why modular here
Why modular here
We're next door in Surrey — short delivery runs, easy site visits, and crews familiar with Metro Vancouver site conditions. CSA A277 factory certification keeps plan review predictable, and the home arrives finished instead of spending months as a backyard construction site.
Before you order: Bylaws change and every lot is different. We confirm the current rules for your exact address as the first step of every project — free.
03 — Modular models
Modular models suited to Burnaby & Tri-Cities lots
CSA A277 modulars — mortgage-financeable as real property.
12' × 44' · Foundation · CSA A277 modular
Mortgage-financeable as real property on a permanent foundation.
Launch pricing announced at consultation.
10' × 32' · Foundation · CSA A277 modular
Mortgage-financeable as real property on a permanent foundation.
Launch pricing announced at consultation.
04 — Common questions
Burnaby & Tri-Cities laneway & garden suite FAQs
Local answers, in plain language.
Which Tri-Cities municipalities allow garden suites?
All of them permit forms of detached accessory dwellings, but each has its own zoning, siting, and servicing requirements. Tell us your address and we'll confirm what applies as part of a free feasibility review.
05 — Working with the builder
Choosing a laneway suite builder
A search for a laneway suite builder in Burnaby & Tri-Citiesusually turns up two different things: general contractors who will build one on your site over several months, and resellers who sell units somebody else manufactured. We are neither. KYRAX builds every home in our own factory and delivers it finished.
That is what makes custom laneway suites genuinely custom here. Because we manufacture the unit, the layout, the exterior and the specification are adjusted to your lot and your budget instead of picked from a fixed catalogue, and modern designs are the default rather than an upgrade. Every home is built to CSA A277 and certified in the factory by a third party before delivery, so the build record follows the home to your address.
Our factory is in Surrey, which makes Burnaby & Tri-Cities a short delivery run and site visits easy.
07 — Sources
Where these bylaw facts come from
The zoning and size figures on this page are researched claims, not boilerplate. Each links to the municipal authority it came from.
City of Burnaby: laneway homes are now regulated the same as other principal buildings and are no longer referred to as laneway homes; permitted including on lots without lanes
burnaby.caBurnaby R1 Small-Scale Multi-Unit Housing District summary: maximum floor area requirements removed, with no set limit beyond permitted height, setbacks and lot coverage; rear principal buildings 7.5 m above grade, 0.5 m less for flat roofs, two storeys inclusive of basement
burnaby.caCity of Port Coquitlam accessory dwelling units page and Zoning Bylaw 3630: maximum floor area 90 sq m excluding an attached garage or carport, maximum two storeys, sprinklers required, and a minimum 1 m wide unobstructed firefighting access path to the street
portcoquitlam.caCity of Coquitlam small-scale multi-unit housing page: Council adopted the Zoning Bylaw changes on 9 June 2025
coquitlam.caCoquitlam Zoning Bylaw Part 10, Low-Density Residential Zones: R-1 Small-Scale Residential permits one principal use, small-scale residential, with a maximum of four dwelling units on a lot and density by floor area ratio of 0.65 for one or two units and 0.75 for three or four; R-2 limits a lot of 280 sq m or less to three dwelling units
coquitlam.caCoquitlam Zoning Bylaw Part 22, Legacy Zones: s.2202(1) applies Part 22 to lands zoned RS-1, RS-3, RS-4, RT-1 and RT-3 as of 30 June 2025; s.2201 defines a carriage house as an accessory dwelling unit located primarily above a detached accessory off-street parking structure; the maximum floor area for a carriage house or garden cottage is 90 sq m or the total floor area of the principal building, whichever is less; RT-1 is the only legacy zone listing carriage house as an accessory use
coquitlam.caCity of Port Moody small-scale multi-unit housing page: a laneway, coach house or accessory dwelling unit is permitted where it meets the SSMUH RS1 zoning requirements, and there is no requirement for lane access in SSMUH
portmoody.caCity of Port Moody Zoning Bylaw 2018 No. 2937, consolidated: the marginal note records the definition of DETACHED ACCESSORY DWELLING UNIT as deleted by BL3460 and ADDITIONAL DWELLING UNIT (ADU) as added by BL3460; s.8.4.4 sets RS1 SSMUH density at a floor area ratio of 0.7 for three dwelling units rising by 0.1 per additional unit to 1.0 for six, with the permitted unit count taken from Map 3
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What does your Burnaby & Tri-Cities lot allow?
Send us your address — we’ll review zoning, siting, and servicing and give you a straight answer. Free, no obligation.