Laneway houses may be a solution for the housing crisis in Alberta, but not necessarily an affordable one.
Laneway houses are detached secondary suites built into pre-existing lots, usually in the backyard or an opening into a back lane. They are often used as housing for multi-generational families and senior family members.
It is also seen as a landlord opportunity for existing homeowners.
Edmonton resident Marty Pawlina built a laneway house on his lot after attending a class about building garden suites. He started looking at ways to build a garden suite behind his home, and then applied to the City of Edmonton for a building permit.
Two years later, his artistic laneway home was completed. Pawlina then turned it into a rental.
“It’s really innovative land use, it’s gentle density and it’s much-needed housing,” Pawlina told Global News. “Our goal is to achieve the highest and best use of the land. We think (a rental) is the best use for it right now.”
The City of Edmonton is considering bylaw changes to make it easier to build laneway houses. The zoning changes aim to create more laneway housing by allowing more units on a lot.
The changes also aim to increase densification in the city to improve infrastructure and revitalize public spaces.
“Laneway housing is part of a broader movement called gentle intensification. It’s often referred to as the missing middle or even the missing little,” Matty Siemiatycki, director of the Infrastructure Institute and professor of geography and planning at the University of Toronto.
“Genuine intensification is one strategy to get units built in areas that are already serviced with infrastructure or to make better use of our existing infrastructure … It makes our communities places for people to live.”
However, Siemiatycki said laneway houses may be expensive to build due to the rising costs of materials and inflation.
“Laneway houses will help with housing supply, which is a piece of the puzzle of affordability, but laneway houses in and of themselves will not necessarily be affordable,” the professor said.
“It’s expensive to build anything in our current market conditions, and laneway houses and other types of secondary suites are no different. Without public policy and public investment, we will get some laneway units built which might lead to intensification, but the units won’t necessarily be affordable unless there are programs and supports that help offset some of the costs.”