Permits & Economics | Condo Registration & Ownership
Selling a Toronto Multiplex Unit by Unit
Toronto made the fourplex legal in 2023. It did not change how a fourplex is owned. You can build four homes on a building permit, and you can sell the whole building to one buyer. To sell a single home inside it, you file a Draft Plan of Condominium application with City Planning, the same planning application a condo tower uses. That gap is the subject of a January 2026 Build Canada memo by Sonya Meloff. This page explains the rules as they stand, sets out what the memo asks for, and checks its claims against the source documents.
Key Takeaways
- ✓Building a fourplex needs a building permit. Selling one unit inside it needs a planning application.
- ✓Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 667 does not apply below six dwelling units, so a fourplex conversion is already outside it.
- ✓Older buildings hit the Schedule G problem: a certificate from an architect or engineer for a building nobody has drawings for.
- ✓The tax gap between rental and ownership narrowed in 2025 with the first-time home buyers’ GST rebate.
- ✓Every reform in the memo is a proposal. None of it is law. Underwrite the rules that exist today.
Registering a condo is worth the cost only when the rental case is weaker. Model the rental case for your address to have something to compare against.
Four Steps, Four Different Rule Sets
People often assume that once a multiplex is legal to build, everything downstream is legal too. The permission to build and the permission to sell are governed by different laws, and they part company at the point where you want two owners instead of one.
| What you want to do | What the rule is | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Build the units | Building permit only, for a multiplex that fits the as-of-right envelope | Up to four units city-wide, six units in the nine sixplex wards. No rezoning, no public meeting. |
| Sell the whole building | No planning application needed | One title, one buyer. The usual exit for a small builder who does not want a condominium file. |
| Sell one home inside the building | Draft Plan of Condominium application to City Planning, then registration | A planning application with its own fees, circulation, conditions, and appeal rights under the Planning Act. Same process a 200-unit tower uses. |
| Turn rented units into owned units | Chapter 667 permit, but only at six units and above | Buildings with fewer than six dwelling units are written out of Chapter 667. A six-unit to ten-unit building needs a Rental Housing Demolition and Conversion Permit. |
Condominium process per the City of Toronto Development Guide. Six-unit threshold per Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 667, section 667-2. Confirm current fees and requirements with City Planning before you budget.
The Schedule G Problem on Older Buildings
Registering a condominium in Ontario means filing a declaration. Schedule G of that declaration holds certificates from an architect or one or more engineers confirming that the buildings were constructed in accordance with the Condominium Act, 1998.
On a new fourplex that is routine. Your design team already exists and signs at the end of the job. On a triplex built in 1935 there is usually no original architect to ask and no set of drawings to check against, so the certificate means hiring a professional to put their name to a building they did not design and cannot fully inspect. Many decline. That single form is one reason older Toronto multiplexes stay rental for their whole life.
The memo proposes dropping Schedule G for buildings older than seven years with ten units or fewer, and replacing it with a municipal work-order search confirming no outstanding structural, safety, or property standards violations, with reserve-fund studies still required every three years. That is a provincial change. It has not been made.
What the Build Canada Memo Asks For
The memo was written by Sonya Meloff and published by Build Canada on January 28, 2026, with support listed from Daniel Debow, Eric Lombardi, Matt Golden, Mike Stern, Farhan Thawar, and Brice Scheschuk. It sets a target of implementing multiplex ownership reform by the end of 2026. These are its four asks.
| The ask | Who would have to act | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| Exempt buildings of ten units or fewer from the condominium draft-plan process | Province (Condominium Act, 1998), with a faster City stream in the meantime | This is the core ask. It would let a surveyor-based registration replace a planning application for a fourplex or sixplex. |
| Allow rental-to-ownership conversion as-of-right for ten units or fewer | City (Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 667) | Narrower than it sounds. Chapter 667 already does not apply below six dwelling units, so the change would cover six-unit to ten-unit buildings. |
| Drop the Schedule G architect and engineer certificate for older small buildings | Province (Condominium Act, 1998 and its regulations) | Aimed at owners of buildings from the 1920s to the 1960s who cannot find the original designer or drawings. The memo suggests a municipal work-order search instead. |
| Give ownership housing the same GST and HST rebate as purpose-built rental | Federal and provincial tax law | Part of this gap has already narrowed since the memo was written. See the fact-check below. |
Summary of Free Multiplexes from Big Condo Ownership Rules, Build Canada Toronto, January 28, 2026. These are proposals from an advocacy memo, not adopted policy.
Fact-Check: Four Claims Against the Source Documents
We checked the memo’s supporting claims against the by-law text, the statutes, and the government programs it points to. The direction of the argument holds up. Four of the supporting details need adjusting before anyone quotes them in a pro forma.
Chapter 667 blocks small conversions
Needs a limitSection 667-2 of the Toronto Municipal Code says the chapter does not apply to a residential rental property that contains less than six dwelling units. A duplex, triplex, fourplex, or five-unit building is already outside it. The permit requirement bites at six units and above, which is where the memo’s ask actually applies.
British Columbia made strata ownership automatic for up to six units
OverstatedBC’s Small-Scale Multi-Unit Housing rules require most lots to allow three to six units, and the province’s own policy manual covers subdivision, lot sizes, and strata titling. The zoning permission and the strata title are still two separate things: an owner who wants to sell units one by one goes through strata subdivision under the Strata Property Act. BC is a fair comparison for zoning, and a weaker one for tenure.
Oregon lets small multiplexes be split without a subdivision process
Right idea, wrong bill numberOregon Senate Bill 458 (2021) is real and is codified at ORS 92.031. It creates a middle housing land division, handled as an expedited land division, that puts each middle-housing unit on its own fee-simple lot. It is a faster land division rather than an exemption from one, and each new lot is limited to one middle-housing unit. The memo cites the bill number as SB 4586.
Tax rules favour rental over ownership
Partly overtaken by eventsThe purpose-built rental housing rebate returns 100 percent of the 5 percent GST with no value cap, for projects that started construction after September 13, 2023. On the ownership side, the first-time home buyers’ GST rebate now removes the GST on a new home worth up to $1 million and reduces it between $1 million and $1.5 million, for agreements signed on or after March 20, 2025, worth up to $50,000. The gap is smaller than the memo describes, but it is still there: the buyer rebate only helps first-time buyers, and only up to a price ceiling.
What a BC Builder Should Take From This
British Columbia is the comparison the memo reaches for, and it is worth being precise about it. BC’s Small-Scale Multi-Unit Housing rules changed what zoning must allow: three to six units on most residential lots, depending on lot size and location. Selling those units one by one is a separate step, handled through strata subdivision under the Strata Property Act. The province’s own policy manual treats subdivision, lot size, and strata titling as their own topic.
So the honest version of the comparison is that BC and Toronto both separated the right to build from the right to sell in pieces. BC builders live with a strata process; Toronto builders live with a condominium process. The useful question in either city is the same one: at what point in your budget does the tenure work start, and who pays for it.
Best For
- ✓ Builders who plan a unit-by-unit sale exit and budget the condominium application from day one, not after occupancy.
- ✓ Owners of six-unit to ten-unit rental buildings weighing a conversion, who need to price both the Chapter 667 permit and the registration.
- ✓ Anyone comparing a hold-and-rent plan against a sell-the-units plan on the same Toronto lot.
Usually Fails When
- ✕ A pro forma assumes four separate unit sales without a line item for the Draft Plan of Condominium application and its conditions.
- ✕ A purchase of an older multiplex assumes a straightforward conversion, then hits the Schedule G certificate on a building with no drawings.
- ✕ A plan is built on the memo’s reforms passing. None of them is law, and the memo’s own target date is the end of 2026.
What To Verify Before Spending Money
- → Current Draft Plan of Condominium fees and submission requirements with City Planning, before you set your budget.
- → Whether your building crosses the six-unit line in Chapter 667, which decides if a conversion permit applies at all.
- → Whether an architect or engineer will actually sign a Schedule G certificate for the specific building you are buying.
- → Which GST or HST rebate your exit qualifies for, since the rental rebate and the first-time buyer rebate have different tests.
Where to Go Next
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sell one unit of my Toronto fourplex on its own?
Is the condominium process different for a fourplex than for a tower?
Do I need a City permit to convert my rented triplex into owned units?
What is Schedule G and why does it matter on an older building?
Does the tax system really favour rental over ownership?
Why would a builder care about this if the plan is to hold and rent?
Sources Referenced
Related reading
Longer pieces on the same question.
What the condo overhang does to the rent you can underwrite.
The four-unit permission read against a real lot, and where it stops.
The two provincial reforms side by side.
Model the rental case before you choose a tenure
Registering a condo makes sense only if the rental case does not. PlexCheck gives you the rental numbers for your address to compare against.
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