The house had been in the family for years, the kind of single-family home someone inherits and then has to decide what to do with. Sitting in Dovercourt Village, the owner’s answer was to take advantage of Toronto’s as-of-right allowance for a fourplex plus garden suite, a zoning change that had only just landed when this project started.

Build X added a third storey and a rear extension to the main house, underpinning the basement to get real eight-foot ceilings instead of a cramped lower unit, and laid out all four suites as two-bedroom units. A three-bedroom, two-bath laneway suite went in at the back, bringing the total to five. The project also qualified for CMHC’s MLI Select financing, which meant government-backed terms and up to 95 percent loan to value. Approvals took four to five months, there were no development charges, and the property now appraises north of four million dollars on more than eighteen thousand dollars a month in rent.