Ask most Toronto owners how many rental units they can put on a residential lot and they will say four — or six, if they have read about the sixplex wards.
The right answer is one more than that. Garden suites sit under their own set of regulations, separate from the multiplex by-law, and they are permitted in addition to the units in the main building.
Six units in the main building plus a garden suite in the rear yard is seven doors on a single Toronto property. And on a lot capped at four, the suite is what carries you over the line that matters most for financing.
A garden suite does not use up one of your units
This is the first thing people want confirmed, so here it is plainly: a garden suite does not consume one of your four or six multiplex units.
The City of Toronto's own multiplex guidance states it directly — "It is possible to have an accessory dwelling unit, like a garden suite or laneway suite on the same property as a multiplex, if certain regulations are met." An accessory dwelling unit on the same property as a multiplex is an addition to it, not a slice of it.
Council's July 2025 development charge decision says the same thing in arithmetic. It exempts "up to six residential units (or up to seven where there is a Garden or Laneway Suite)" from development charges and parkland dedication. Six multiplex units, plus a seventh in the rear yard.
So on a lot that qualifies for six units and has the depth for a rear-yard building, seven is the number. What decides whether you get there is not the unit cap — it is lot depth, tree protection and rear-yard landscaping, which we come to below.
The financing reason this matters most
CMHC's MLI Select program — the financing that makes small purpose-built rental work in Toronto — has a minimum project size of five units. Below that, it does not apply.
In our experience, a garden suite counts toward the unit total CMHC uses for valuation and financing purposes. That makes a fourplex plus a garden suite a five-unit project.
Line that up against the zoning and the significance is hard to overstate. Four units are as-of-right city-wide. A garden suite is permitted in addition to them, anywhere the rear yard supports one. Neither needs a variance. So on a lot with the depth for a rear-yard building, MLI Select eligibility is reachable without a Committee of Adjustment application, without a rezoning, and without being in one of the nine sixplex wards.
For an owner in Etobicoke, York, North York or most of Scarborough, the garden suite is not a nice-to-have at the back of the lot. It is the difference between conventional commercial debt and up to 95% loan-to-cost with a fifty-year amortization. The full comparison is in Fourplex or Sixplex?
What a garden suite is — and is not
A garden suite is a self-contained residential unit in the rear yard of a lot that does not abut a public laneway. If your lot backs onto a laneway, what you can build is a laneway suite, under a different set of regulations.
Garden suites are permitted in R, RD, RS, RT and RM zones. One per property, containing a single unit. Maximum two storeys. Basements are allowed.
The dimensional rules
| Standard | Rule |
|---|---|
| Maximum height | 4.0 m if 5.0 m from the main building; up to 6.0 m if 7.5 m or more away, subject to an angular plane |
| Maximum size | The smaller of 40% of the rear yard area and 60 m² (about 646 sq ft) |
| Floor area cap | Interior space must be less than the gross floor area of the main residential building |
| Side yard setback | Greater of 0.6 m and 10% of lot frontage (max 3.0 m); greater of 1.5 m and 10% of frontage where there are windows or doors |
| Rear yard setback | Minimum 1.5 m, more on deeper lots |
| Separation from main building | Minimum 5.0 m |
| Soft landscaping | 50% of the rear yard (25% on lots under 6.0 m frontage) |
| Ancillary structures | All ancillary structures together ≤ 20% of lot area |
| Car parking | None required. Minimum two bicycle parking spaces required. |
| Severance | The lot cannot be severed to create a separate parcel for the suite |
One caveat on these numbers. The dimensional standards above come from the City's published summary of garden suite rules, which is dated February 2022. Council adopted new Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendments for garden suites on June 24, 2025, responding to Ontario Regulation 462/24, and the detailed standards now live in Chapter 150.7 of Zoning By-law 569-2013. Some of these figures may have moved. Verify against the current Chapter 150.7 before you design to them.
The 5.0 metre separation is the design constraint
Everything about garden suite feasibility comes down to depth, and the arithmetic is unforgiving.
You need the main building, then a minimum 5.0 m gap, then the suite, then a rear setback of at least 1.5 m. Add the 17.0 m maximum building depth for the main multiplex and you can see why lot depth decides this before anything else does.
| Depth budget on a 40 m (131') deep lot | |
| Front setback and main building depth | |
| ~ 23 m | |
| Required separation | |
| 5.0 m | |
| Garden suite footprint | |
| ~ 10 m | |
| Rear setback | |
| 1.5 m+ | |
| Illustrative only. Actual setbacks, angular planes and soft landscaping requirements vary by zone and lot. Verify against current Chapter 150.7. | |
On a 132' deep lot, this works comfortably — which is exactly why the seven-suite project in our cost breakdown sits on 55' × 132'. On a 100' deep lot, it gets tight fast. That is the first measurement to take.
What a garden suite adds
On the seven-suite project, the garden suite is a two-level three-bedroom of roughly 1,050 sq ft — larger than the 60 m² cap on a single storey, which is what the two-storey permission and a basement make possible.
Against a project gross rental income of $318,400 across seven suites, that one unit carries meaningful weight:
| What the extra unit does | Effect |
|---|---|
| Can carry you over the CMHC five-unit line | A fourplex plus a suite is five doors — the MLI Select threshold, with no variance required |
| Adds gross rental income | A three-bedroom suite at market rent, on land you already own |
| Adds NOI, and therefore value | At a 4.7% cap, every $1,000 of annual NOI adds about $21,000 of stabilized value |
| Carries no development charge | The exemption extends to a seventh unit where there is a garden or laneway suite |
| Requires no car parking | Two bicycle spaces, and that is the requirement |
| Diversifies the rent roll | A detached family-sized unit competes in a different pool than apartment suites |
On the cost side, a garden suite is not cheap per square foot. It is a small standalone building with its own foundation, envelope, services and roof — none of which benefit from the scale of the main structure. Expect a higher per-foot cost than the main building and budget servicing separately. On a project where the suite is what unlocks CMHC financing, that premium is usually money well spent.
Four things that decide whether your lot works
1. Does the lot abut a public laneway?
If it does, you are in laneway suite territory, under separate rules we have not detailed here. Different regulations, different standards. Establish this first.
2. How deep is the rear yard?
After the main building, you need the 5.0 m separation, a buildable footprint and the rear setback. Depth decides this. So does whether you are pushing the main multiplex to its full 17.0 m depth.
3. What is growing back there?
The Tree Protection By-law applies to trees 30 cm or more in diameter, and the garden suite rules do not permit removal of healthy protected trees. A mature tree in the wrong position can end the conversation. Notably, the seven-suite project we have been referencing sits on a flat lot with minimal trees — the contractor called that out as a factor simplifying compliance, and they were right to.
4. How much soft landscaping is left?
Fifty per cent of the rear yard must remain soft landscaping on most lots. Between the suite footprint, any path and the required landscaping, the yard fills up quickly.
A note on the whole-property design
The mistake we see most often is treating the garden suite as an afterthought — design the multiplex, then see what fits in the back. That sequence usually produces either no garden suite or a bad one. When the suite is also the fifth unit your financing depends on, it is a very expensive sequence.
The right sequence designs the whole property at once: main building depth, the separation, the rear structure, the drive aisle and parking if any, servicing runs, and the landscaping, as a single problem. On the seven-suite project, the side private drive aisle leading to rear parking for seven cars was designed alongside the buildings, not after them.
That is what a consultant bench with multiplex experience actually buys you. It is not that they know the rules — the rules are published. It is that they have made these trade-offs before and know which ones bite.
How VIP Condos Toronto helps close the gap
We are not the builder and we are not the general partner. We are the brokerage that has done the vetting, and that is the value we bring to this.
Our bench of contractors and consultants is pre-vetted for the thing that actually matters: whether they build multiplexes as their core business, repeatedly, with standing crews and common plans — or whether yours would be their first. One GP corporation we work with is operated by a principal with more than thirty years of construction and development management experience, whose related entities have delivered over three million square feet and more than $5 billion of development value, and which is now structured as a vertically integrated operation dedicated to multiplex projects: planning, development, financing, construction, lease-up, stabilization, operation and sale.
We do not publish our partners' corporate names here. If you are weighing a project and want to know exactly who you would be building with — the principals, the completed projects and the references — contact Frank Merigliano directly at 416-885-0172 or frank@vipcondostoronto.net and we will make the introduction.
We introduce clients into that bench either as 100% owners with a turnkey fixed-price contract, or as limited partners in a GP/LP structure. We will tell you honestly which one fits your situation, including when the answer is that neither does yet.
Related reading: 100% Ownership or GP/LP Partner? and Toronto's Multiplex Playbook for 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a garden suite count toward my fourplex or sixplex unit limit?
No. Garden suites are governed by separate regulations and are permitted in addition to the units in the main building. A fourplex plus a garden suite is five units; a sixplex plus a garden suite is seven. What limits you in practice is lot depth, tree protection and rear-yard landscaping, not the unit cap.
Does the garden suite count toward the CMHC five-unit minimum?
In our experience, yes — it counts toward the unit total for CMHC valuation and financing purposes. That makes a fourplex plus a garden suite a five-unit project, and it is the route to MLI Select eligibility on a lot where the main building is capped at four units. It is the most commercially significant thing about the extra unit. Confirm the treatment with your lender at design stage, as you would with any financing assumption.
Can I have both a garden suite and a laneway suite?
No. A lot that abuts a public laneway is not eligible for a garden suite — the two are alternatives, not additions, and which one applies is determined by the lot.
Can I sever the garden suite and sell it?
No. The lot cannot be severed to create a separate parcel for a garden suite. It stays part of the property.
Can I put the garden suite up first and build the multiplex later?
Sequencing is possible but rarely efficient. The garden suite's size is limited relative to the gross floor area of the main residential building, and servicing, site access and construction staging are all cheaper done once. Design the whole property first, even if you build in phases.
Are the 2022 dimensional rules still current?
Some of them may not be. Council adopted new garden suite amendments in June 2025 in response to Ontario Regulation 462/24, and the current standards sit in Chapter 150.7 of By-law 569-2013. We treat the February 2022 summary as indicative and verify against Chapter 150.7 on every project. You should too.
This guide is for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal, financial, or tax advice. Garden suite regulations were amended in 2025 and some dimensional standards cited here derive from an earlier City summary; always confirm the current requirements for your specific property against Chapter 150.7 of Zoning By-law 569-2013 and with City of Toronto staff, and confirm financing treatment with a CMHC-approved lender. Every situation is different — always consult a licensed real estate professional, lawyer, planner, and tax advisor before making any decisions.
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For personalized advice on your specific Toronto buying or selling situation, contact Frank Merigliano and the VIP Condos Toronto team directly:
Phone: 416-885-0172
Email: frank@vipcondostoronto.net
Web: www.VIPCondosToronto.net
Frank Merigliano, Team Leader / Sales Representative, VIP Condos Toronto, RE/MAX PREMIER INTERNATIONAL INC., Brokerage — licensed since 1993, with RE/MAX since 1995, and a Top 50 RE/MAX team in Canada since 2015.
Sources: City of Toronto, Considerations When Building Multiplexes; City of Toronto, Garden Suites; City of Toronto, Garden Suites Summary of Rules (February 2022); Toronto City Council item 2025.MM32.5 (development charge and parkland exemption, including the seventh unit); CMHC, MLI Select.
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