City of Edmonton | 2020
WHAT IS A GARDEN SUITE?
A garden suite is an apartment-sized living space that’s located in the backyard of a single detached house. To qualify as a garden suite, the space needs to have its own kitchen, bathroom, sleeping and living space. Some garden suites include garage space and some have no garage at all.
WHY GARDEN SUITES?
Garden suites are great for adding flexibility to our neighbourhoods. By including smaller, lower maintenance and more affordable living options in our communities, older residents can downsize while staying in the neighbourhoods they love, and younger residents can find housing that fits their budget.
By building a garden suite, homeowners remain the sole residents of their home, while adding some extra rental income from their lot.
Other homeowners choose to build a garden suite to accommodate an extended family member, like a parent or grandparent, allowing them to live nearby while still maintaining a level of privacy for both.
It’s a win-win, and a great way to add housing choice to our neighbourhoods. That helps us be more efficient with our utilities, allows more people to use existing transit routes, and creates more opportunities for local main streets to flourish.
CITY POLICY
Garden suites support The Way We Grow policy 4.4.1 to “Ensure neighbourhoods have a range of housing choice to meet the needs of all demographic and income groups and create more socially sustainable communities.”