The Nine Wards: Where Toronto Lets You Build a Sixplex As-of-Right

On June 25 and 26, 2025, Toronto City Council voted to permit fiveplexes and sixplexes as-of-right — and then, in the same sitting, voted to limit that permission to nine of the city's twenty-five wards.

The decision cost the City $10 million in federal housing funding. It also created one of the sharpest geographic lines in Toronto real estate: two otherwise identical detached lots, a few hundred metres apart on opposite sides of a ward boundary, now carry meaningfully different development potential.

If you are looking at a Toronto lot with a multiplex in mind, the first question is not what you can afford. It is which side of that line you are on.

The nine wards

The permission covers the eight wards of the Toronto and East York Community Council, plus Ward 23.

Ward	Name
4	Parkdale–High Park
9	Davenport
10	Spadina–Fort York
11	University–Rosedale
12	Toronto–St. Paul's
13	Toronto Centre
14	Toronto–Danforth
19	Beaches–East York
23	Scarborough North

Ward 23 is the outlier, and it got there first. Scarborough North received fiveplex and sixplex permissions separately in February 2025, through Official Plan Amendment 762 and an accompanying zoning by-law amendment, as a pilot with a staff report back due in the second quarter of 2028.

The other eight came through Official Plan Amendment 818 and Zoning By-law 654-2025, adopted June 26, 2025.

What the permission actually allows

It is narrower than the headline suggests, and the detail matters.

Item	Rule
Units	Up to six — fiveplexes and sixplexes
Building type	Detached residential buildings only. Not semi-detached. Not townhouses.
Height	Increased by 0.5 m to 10.5 m, to allow workable basement ceiling heights and a four-level layout
Where	All low-rise residential lots designated Neighbourhoods within the nine wards
Bedrooms	Three per unit — eighteen in a sixplex, fifteen in a fiveplex

That extra half-metre is doing more work than it looks. At 10.0 m, a four-level building with a habitable lower level is a squeeze. At 10.5 m, the basement ceiling height works, and a sixplex on a standard lot becomes buildable rather than theoretical.

The number that actually moved the economics

Zoning permission on its own does not build anything. What did was a separate Council decision a month later.

On July 23 and 24, 2025, Council adopted Mayor Chow's motion to reduce development charges to zero for the second through sixth residential dwelling units in developments of up to six units on a single parcel, and to exempt those same units from parkland dedication or cash-in-lieu — or up to a seventh unit where there is a garden or laneway suite.

An amending motion struck the language that would have limited the exemption to building permits issued before April 30, 2027. There is no sunset date in the adopted version.

What that is worth

Toronto's published residential development charge rates give a sense of scale. Per dwelling unit, effective May 1, 2025, without a section 27 agreement:

City of Toronto development charge, per dwelling unit
Singles and semis
	$143,409
Multiples, 2+ bedrooms
	$118,536
Apartments, 2+ bedrooms
	$83,946
Apartments, 1 bedroom and bachelor
	$21,141
City of Toronto published DC rates effective May 1, 2025. Which category the City applies to a given houseplex form should be confirmed with staff on a specific project.

Apply the multiples rate to units two through six of a sixplex and the exemption is worth something in the order of $570,000 to $590,000 on a single building. That is not a rounding error on a $4 million project. It is the difference between a deal that pencils and one that does not.

We would add one honest caveat: the category the City assigns to a "houseplex" form drives that number, and it is worth confirming with staff on your specific project before you put a figure in a pro forma.

If your lot is in the other sixteen wards

Most of Etobicoke, York, North York and the rest of Scarborough still cap out at four units as-of-right. A fifth or sixth unit there needs either a rezoning or a minor variance through the Committee of Adjustment.

That is not a dead end. The Committee of Adjustment route is how a great many Toronto multiplex projects get built, and a well-prepared application on a lot with supportive context and precedent has a reasonable path. But it is a different project: different timeline, different professional fees, different risk profile, and a decision that is not guaranteed.

The phased approach

There is a sequencing strategy worth knowing, and our GP partners use it. Build the four-unit as-of-right permission first — including a garden suite where the lot allows — and pursue the variance to five or six units during construction rather than before it.

On one seven-suite project currently in planning, that is exactly the structure: Phase 1 is a four-plex plus garden suite, fully as-of-right, with permitting starting at deal acceptance. Phase 2 is a Committee of Adjustment application to six units in the main building. Because the conversion affects internal elements only, the build can commence on the initial permit while the variance runs in parallel.

The financing, the partnership agreement and the investors do not have to be restructured between the phases. That is the point of doing it this way.

The MTSA layer — and a common error

If your lot sits within a Major Transit Station Area, you have an additional avenue. In August 2025 the Province approved 120 station areas across Toronto — 95 protected MTSAs and 25 MTSAs — through six Official Plan amendments. Because they were adopted under section 26 of the Planning Act and relate to PMTSAs, those decisions are final and not subject to appeal.

Here is the error to avoid. Coverage of MTSAs frequently cites 30 storeys and an FSI of 8.0. Those permissions apply to Mixed Use Areas, Apartment Neighbourhoods and Regeneration Areas — not to a typical low-rise residential multiplex lot.

For a lot designated Neighbourhoods, the realistic MTSA gain is:

• Up to four storeys residential within the station area

• Up to six storeys if the lot fronts a Major Street and sits within 200 m of the station

Four to six storeys, as-of-right, without an Official Plan amendment, is a genuine step up from a 10.5 m envelope. It is not tower density, and any pro forma that assumes otherwise is built on sand.

One further caution: the implementing zoning is not in place yet. Provincial approval landed in August 2025, public consultation ran in early 2026, and Bill 98 in June 2026 created implementation delays that City staff are still working through. Treat an MTSA designation as a policy tailwind that strengthens a variance application, not as a permission you can build on today.

Will the other wards opt in?

The mechanism exists and it is informal: a councillor from a ward outside the Toronto and East York district can request inclusion by writing to the Chief Planner, after which City Planning must report to the Planning and Housing Committee and propose a further amendment. There is no application form, no deadline and no automatic trigger.

As of mid-2026, no ward has opted in. The advocacy organization Build Canada reported in July 2026 that sixplexes remained as-of-right in only nine of twenty-five wards, more than a year after the mechanism was created — a claim consistent with the federal funding consequence below, though it is an advocacy source rather than a government one.

The consequence was real. City-wide sixplex permission was a condition of Toronto's $471 million Housing Accelerator Fund agreement. On January 16, 2026, Ottawa cut the City's funding by $10 million for non-compliance, split across the two remaining payments. Housing Minister Gregor Robertson: "Council opted to limit these permissions to only nine wards, falling short of our joint ambition."

City Planning must report on fiveplex and sixplex implementation effectiveness by the second quarter of 2027. That report is the next real decision point.

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

Is my lot in one of the nine wards?

Ward boundaries are published by the City and are searchable by address. If you are in the Toronto and East York district — broadly, the old City of Toronto plus East York — or in Scarborough North, you are in. We run this check as the first step on any site we look at.

Does the permission apply to a semi-detached house?

No. The fiveplex and sixplex permission applies to detached residential buildings only. A semi in one of the nine wards is still capped at four units as-of-right.

Was the by-law appealed?

The appeal window for Official Plan Amendment 818 and By-law 654-2025 closed at 4:30 p.m. on July 31, 2025, at $1,100 per appeal, and was open only to a narrow class of parties. We have not been able to confirm whether any appeal was filed or its status at the Ontario Land Tribunal. Worth noting that Bill 185 eliminated third-party appeals province-wide in 2024, which sharply narrows who could have appealed at all.

Is the development charge exemption safe?

The adopted by-law contains no sunset date, and we found no Council item repealing or narrowing it. It should be treated as in force. It should not be treated as permanent — no municipal exemption is.

Can I still build six units outside the nine wards?

Yes, through a minor variance or rezoning. It takes longer, costs more in professional fees, and carries approval risk. On the right lot with the right context it is frequently worth doing, and we can tell you quickly whether a site is a plausible candidate.

This guide is for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal, financial, or tax advice. Zoning permissions and development charge policies change; always confirm the current rules for your specific property with the City of Toronto and consult a licensed real estate professional, lawyer, and planner before making any decisions.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Create your free, secure account at www.VIPCondosToronto.net for full MLS access, real-time sold data, and VIP pre-construction pricing and floor plans — the same tools our team uses every day.

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: Toronto City Council item 2025.PH22.4 (sixplex permissions, June 2025); City of Toronto notice of adoption, OPA 818 and By-law 654-2025; Toronto City Council item 2025.PH18.4 (Ward 23 pilot); Toronto City Council item 2025.MM32.5 (development charge and parkland exemption); City of Toronto development charge rates; City of Toronto, Zoning for Major Transit Station Areas; Cassels, Ontario approves 120 PMTSAs and MTSAs in Toronto; CBC News, Toronto sixplexes and federal funding; CP24, Ottawa cuts Toronto housing funding, January 2026.