BC Multiplex Index, by PlexIntel
PlexRank™ Index — June 2026
The first edition of the PlexRank™ Index — our monthly BC multiplex report — tracks how much small-scale multi-unit housing BC’s upzoning is actually producing: permit applications, unit counts, and where a multiplex pencils for a builder.
Edition published 2026-06-12 · Data through April 2026 · Methodology v1.0 · Permanent archive copy — figures are never revised after publication.
Vancouver builders filed 518+ multiplex applications in the R1-1 zone between October 2023 and early 2026.
Those Vancouver multiplex applications represent roughly 2,200 new dwelling units in former single-family zones.
PlexRank has scored 205,047 BC residential lots across six cities for projected return on equity under current zoning.
Multiplexes made up about 50% of all Vancouver R1-1 applications in 2024, ahead of duplexes at roughly 30% and single detached houses at roughly 20%.
Where a multiplex pencils: PlexRank by city
PlexRank models projected return on equity for a multiplex build on each residential lot, using current zoning, land assessments, construction costs, and sale comparables. It has scored 205,047 lots across six BC cities; the distributions below come from the Q1 2026 analysis of four of them. The spread between cities is the story: similar provincial zoning, very different economics.
| City | Mean projected ROE | Median projected ROE | Read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burnaby | 36.6% | 32.0% | Broadly feasible — the distribution skews right, so most lots clear a builder’s threshold. |
| City of North Vancouver | 37.3% | 19.0% | Wide spread — strong lots are very strong, but lot selection matters more than anywhere else. |
| Vancouver | 19.2% | 15.0% | Tighter distribution — high land basis means width and lot geometry decide which lots get built. |
| Kelowna | 4.9% | — | Compressed — the market does not yet support what the zoning permits on most lots. |
Source: PlexRank™ Q1 2026 city distribution analysis. Cite as “PlexRank™ Index, by PlexIntel (June 2026)”.
What Vancouver builders are filing
Multiplexes became the dominant application type in Vancouver's R1-1 zone in 2024. About 90% of multiplex applicants design without a basement, and the concurrent development-and-building permit path introduced in 2025 cuts roughly 4–6 months off the old sequential process.
“The zoning question is settled — most BC lots can hold four to six units now. The question that decides whether housing gets built is the math on each lot. That is what this index tracks: not what cities allow, but what builders actually file and what actually pencils.”
Vancouver R1-1 applications, 2024 mix
Source: City of Vancouver R1-1 reporting, compiled by PlexIntel.
The detail behind these numbers
The index publishes the headline figures. Subscribers get the data underneath — per city, per neighbourhood, per parcel.
- Full PlexRank distributions for every covered city, down to the parcel
- Permit application lists with address, status, and unit count
- Per-neighbourhood breakdowns of where applications cluster
- The underlying tables as CSV, plus API access
Methodology (v1.0)
Permit application counts and the application mix come from municipal permit data, including the City of Vancouver's published R1-1 reporting. Viability figures come from PlexRank, VanPlex's lot-by-lot return-on-equity model, which has scored 205,047 residential lots across six BC cities: Vancouver (71,186), Burnaby (36,905), Kelowna (36,117), Coquitlam (27,874), Richmond (25,919), and the City of North Vancouver (7,046). The per-city ROE distributions in this edition come from the Q1 2026 analysis covering Vancouver, Burnaby, the City of North Vancouver, and Kelowna.
What this edition covers directly: Vancouver permit applications and the four PlexRank cities. What it does not yet cover: permit lifecycle status over time (applied, issued, under construction, completed) across all BC municipalities — that tracking is being built and will appear in future editions. Where a figure is approximate it is marked with a tilde.
Published figures are never revised after release. Corrections, if needed, appear in the next edition with a note. Full source list: methodology and sources · data sources.