Vancouver: R1-1 Multiplex Zoning

Vancouver is VanPlex's home market, so this is the zoning we work in every day. For most of the city's history, the largest share of residential land was locked into a patchwork of low-density single-house zones, each with its own slightly different rules. The City decided to replace that patchwork with one rule. At a public hearing on September 14, 2023, Council approved adding multiplexes as a new housing option and simplifying the rules for low-density neighbourhoods across the city. The independent local watchdog CityHallWatch recorded the same hearing and noted the outcome as adopted, with the rezoning reaching most Vancouver neighbourhoods.

Approving the policy and enacting the law are two separate steps. The new bylaws, including the new R1-1 District Schedule, were enacted on October 17, 2023. On that date Council amended the Zoning and Development By-law to consolidate nine separate RS residential zones, rezoning the areas formerly mapped as RS-1, RS-1A, RS-1B, RS-2, RS-3, RS-3A, RS-5, RS-6 and RS-7 into a single new R1-1 Residential Inclusive zone. So the name on a Vancouver low-density lot that used to read, for example, RS-1, now reads R1-1, and one rule book applies where nine used to.

Vancouver's reform did not happen in isolation. British Columbia passed its own Small-Scale Multi-Unit Housing law, commonly called SSMUH or Bill 44, at roughly the same time. The provincial law tells every local government with a population over 5,000 that it must allow small multi-unit housing on lots that used to be reserved for a single house or a duplex. The provincial floor is set by lot size: a minimum of 3 housing units on lots 280 square metres or smaller, and a minimum of 4 units on lots larger than 280 square metres. Where a lot larger than 280 square metres sits near frequent bus service, the province requires the city to allow six units. Local governments were required to bring their bylaws into line by June 30, 2024.

For a Vancouver owner this matters in a specific way. The province sets a minimum that the city cannot go below, but the city is allowed to write its own detailed rules on top of that minimum, and how much floor area you actually get is where Vancouver and the province part ways. We come back to that gap further down, because it is the single biggest reason a Vancouver multiplex behaves differently from what the headline unit counts suggest.

The core of the R1-1 rule is a choice between two paths: ownership units or rental units. A multiplex on a standard lot can hold 3 to 6 ownership units held as strata title, or up to 8 secured rental units. Strata title simply means each home can be owned and sold separately, the way a condo is. Secured rental means the homes are legally committed to staying rentals rather than being sold off one by one. The R1-1 District Schedule sets the rule that a building of 7 or 8 dwelling units is only permitted where all the units are non-stratified and secured as rental tenure (one of those units may be occupied by the registered owner). In other words, you can only reach the highest unit counts by giving up the right to sell the homes individually.

The rules also dictate the mix of home sizes so that a multiplex is not built entirely from the smallest possible units. For a building of three or four units, one to two of them must have two or more bedrooms; for five or six units, two to three must have two or more bedrooms; and for a seven or eight unit rental building, two to three must have two or more bedrooms. The intent is to keep some family-sized homes in the supply rather than letting every project default to studios and one-bedrooms.

Floor space ratio, written as FSR, is the lever that controls how big a building you can put on a lot. It is the total floor area of the building divided by the area of the lot, so an FSR of 1.0 on a 4,000 square foot lot means 4,000 square feet of building. Under R1-1, the base FSR for a market multiplex is 0.70. That base can rise to a maximum of 1.00, but only if the project earns it, and the main way to earn it is to commit the building to rental. The District Schedule sets the higher 1.00 figure for a multiple dwelling of no more than 8 units where all of them are secured as rental, with one unit allowed to be owner-occupied.

There is also a below-market homeownership route to the higher floor area, where a project of up to six units includes at least one below-market ownership unit delivered through a BC Housing partnership, or contributes affordable-housing space to the City. The structure is deliberate: a builder who keeps the project market-rate strata is held to the lower 0.70 floor area, while a builder who locks the building into rental or below-market ownership is rewarded with up to roughly forty percent more building. That extra floor area is the city's chosen incentive to push multiplex supply toward rental and affordability rather than market-rate resale.

This is the part owners and builders should weigh most heavily, because the application numbers tell a clearer story than the unit limits do. The first multiplex applications were accepted in November 2023. According to City figures in a memo to Mayor and Council, by the end of March 2025 the City had accepted roughly 370 multiplex applications, representing about 1,500 dwelling units. The same City figures show that during 2024 the multiplex became the most common application type in the R1-1 zone, making up about half of all R1-1 applications, ahead of duplexes and detached houses. By that measure the policy clearly changed what people apply to build.

The caution is hidden inside those same numbers. An accepted application is a request to build, not a finished building. Independent housing analyst Jens von Bergmann, who publishes detailed Vancouver data through MountainMath, has argued that Vancouver's own design and floor-area limits make the larger multiplexes hard to actually deliver, so the reform has generated more applications than completed buildings. The broader critique, set out by the More Housing analysis below, is that the city allows only about half as much floor space as the provincial standard would, which holds back what gets built. The honest reading is that 370 applications is real demand, but it is not yet 370 finished multiplexes, and the gap between the two is where most of the difficulty lives.

The headline says three to six ownership units, and an owner can be forgiven for assuming six is the normal outcome. In practice it is the exception, and the reason is arithmetic. The market multiplex is held to 0.70 FSR. The More Housing analysis sets out what that means in plain numbers: Vancouver's rules allow about 1.0 FSR, or 4,000 square feet of floor space on a 4,000 square foot lot, enough for four homes of about 1,000 square feet each. Divide a 0.70 market envelope across six homes and each one becomes small enough that buyers hesitate, which is why many Vancouver multiplexes settle at three or four larger units rather than six tight ones.

Floor area is only the first constraint. Design guidelines, setbacks, building height, tree retention, and the shape and slope of the specific lot all subtract from what fits. On top of that sits Vancouver land cost, which is among the highest in the country, so every square foot the rules take away is paid for in land that was already expensive. The combined effect is that the proforma, the spreadsheet that tests whether a project earns back its costs, often clears at four homes and fails at six. The City itself flagged the floor-area ceiling, telling the public that density above 1.0 FSR poses increased utility risk and would need a longer, less certain review. So the practical ceiling for most market lots is lower than the legal one.

If the market strata path tops out at four homes on many lots, the secured rental path is where the higher unit counts and the higher floor area actually become reachable. Choosing rental unlocks the 1.00 FSR maximum and up to eight units, and it also opens a financing door that the strata path does not. That door is CMHC's MLI Select program, the federal mortgage-insurance product built for purpose-built rental. MLI Select requires a minimum of five self-contained rental units, which a Vancouver R1-1 rental multiplex of up to eight units can satisfy.

The terms are the point. MLI Select uses a points system that rewards affordability, energy efficiency, and accessibility, and the financing it unlocks can reach up to 95% loan-to-value with amortization stretched well beyond a conventional mortgage. A longer amortization means lower monthly payments, which is frequently the difference between a small rental building that covers its own debt and one that does not. The shape of Vancouver's rule and the shape of the federal financing line up: the city hands extra floor area to rental projects, and the federal program hands those same rental projects the financing terms that make eight units pencil. For many Vancouver lots, rental plus MLI Select is the only version of the math that works at the higher unit counts.

Two comparisons frame how generous Vancouver's rule really is. Against the provincial floor, Vancouver is tighter on the thing that matters most. The More Housing analysis puts the province's standards at roughly 1.8 FSR, against the city's 1.0 cap, meaning the city allows only about half as much floor space. Against Portland, often cited as a model, Vancouver is more cautious still. Portland ties allowed floor area to unit count so that fourplexes get more building than a single house, and it permits up to six units when half are affordable to households earning up to 60% of median family income, a structure the Sightline Institute called the best low-density zoning reform in US history. Vancouver gives less floor area to lean on, which is the structural reason six homes is harder here than the headline suggests.

For a Vancouver owner or builder, the practical takeaways are short. First, your lot is almost certainly R1-1 now if it used to be one of the nine RS zones, so the right to build a multiplex very likely exists. Second, do not assume six homes; on most market lots the floor-area rule pushes the realistic answer to three or four. Third, if you want the higher unit counts, the secured rental path plus CMHC MLI Select is usually the route that makes the numbers work, not the market strata path. Fourth, and most important, screen before you commit. Land cost, lot shape, and the design rules decide whether a given address pencils, and they decide it lot by lot. The honest position, backed by the City's own figures showing roughly 370 applications against far fewer finished buildings, is that most Vancouver lots do not pencil to six homes. Run the specific lot first, then decide.