BC's free multiplex designs: what they cover and where a builder still adds value

BC Housing released 10 free standardized multiplex design concepts through Leckie Studio and a group of partner architectural firms. The designs cover duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, and accessory dwelling units, the full range of small-scale multi-unit housing that Bill 44 opened up across Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. They are close to building-permit ready, and they save approximately $30,000 to $50,000 in architecture fees compared to commissioning a fully custom design from scratch.

That saving is real. It is also where most homeowners' understanding of the program stops, which is where the confusion starts.

What "pre-reviewed" actually means

The designs are described as pre-reviewed for zoning and code compliance. What that means in practice is that BC Housing and the reviewing architects have verified that the design concepts meet the relevant building code and zoning standards in a general sense, the unit layout, the building height, the fire separation requirements, the basic structural approach. That pre-review is what allows the City of Vancouver to offer a streamlined permit process and reduced permit fees for projects using these designs.

What pre-reviewed does not mean is that the design is a buildable permit set for your lot. A building permit in Vancouver is issued for a specific building on a specific property. The permit drawings have to show your actual lot's dimensions, your setbacks from property lines, your relationship to the street grade, and how utilities connect to your building. None of that is in the free design. A local licensed designer must prepare those site-specific drawings before any permit application can go in.

The federal catalogue and how it fits in

The federal government launched its own Housing Design Catalogue in March 2025, providing standardized designs for a wider range of multiplex sizes. The federal catalogue and the BC Housing designs are separate programs, though they work toward the same goal of reducing the upfront cost and time to get a permit-ready design for a small multi-unit building. In Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, the BC Housing designs are more directly integrated with the City of Vancouver's permit fee reduction program, so for a project in Vancouver, Burnaby, or Richmond, the provincial designs are typically the more relevant starting point.

Where the free design ends

The architectural concept is only one piece of a multiplex project. A homeowner in Renfrew-Collingwood who downloads a free fourplex design has a floorplan, a building form, and a starting point for a permit application. That homeowner does not yet have a project.

• Site grading and drainage design, specific to your lot's actual topography.
• Utility connections, water service, sewer connection, gas line, and BC Hydro electrical service, all require separate engineering and city coordination.
• Soil investigation and foundation design, which depend on your specific ground conditions.
• Energy modelling to confirm the building meets the BC Energy Step Code level your city enforces.
• A full building permit application, including responses to any queries the city raises during review.
• A licensed general contractor to price, schedule, and build the project.
• Site logistics: access, staging, waste management, and neighbour notification.

Each of these items has a cost and a timeline. Together they represent the bulk of the effort between "I have a free design" and "I have a building permit and a construction contract." The design saving is real, but it's a saving on one line item in a much longer project budget.

The permit fee reduction: how it works and what it requires

Vancouver's standardized housing design program offers reduced permit fees to projects that use a pre-reviewed design concept. The reduction applies because the city's building department starts from a concept that has already been assessed for code compliance, reviewers can work faster, and some of the standard review steps are condensed. To access this reduction, the project has to use one of the approved design concepts and demonstrate that the site-specific adaptation doesn't fundamentally alter the pre-reviewed elements.

This is a meaningful benefit. Building permit fees in Vancouver are based on construction value, and for a multi-unit project they add up. The reduced-fee program, combined with the architecture cost savings from using a free design, can represent a substantial improvement in the project's upfront cost profile, before a single piece of lumber is ordered.

Where a builder still adds specific value

The free design removes one cost and compresses one timeline. It doesn't change most of what a builder actually does. On a Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley multiplex, the builder's role covers the site assessment that tells you whether a given design will actually work on your specific lot, not every free design concept fits every lot width or depth. It covers the cost estimate and construction contract that determine whether the project is financially viable. It covers permit application management, including coordinating the site-specific drawings, the engineering reports, and the city's review queries. And it covers the 12 to 18 months of construction itself.

A lot in Sunset with a standard 33-foot frontage and flat grade might adapt to one of the free designs with modest effort. A lot in East Vancouver with a 2.5-metre grade change from front to back and a protected tree in the build zone requires more adaptation, and the question of which free design, if any, fits that site is not answered by downloading the drawings.

The honest framing is this: the free designs solve a real problem for a specific group of homeowners, those with standard lots, adequate servicing, and projects that don't require unusual site engineering. For those projects, the saving is genuine and the streamlined permit timeline is a real benefit. For projects with site-specific complexity, the free design is a starting point that still requires significant professional work to adapt, and the adaptation cost reduces the net saving.

The question worth asking before you commit to a design

Before committing to any design, free or custom, the right first step is a site assessment that answers whether the design fits your specific lot, what site-specific engineering is required, and what the full project cost looks like from permit application through to construction completion. That assessment tells you whether the free design saves you money in your situation, or whether a custom design better fits your lot's constraints and your project's goals.

We do that assessment as part of our standard feasibility review process for homeowners in Vancouver, Burnaby, and across Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. The design decision, free or custom, is one of the outputs of that work, not one of the inputs. Starting with the design before you know whether it fits is the part that leads to expensive course corrections later.

How the permit fee reduction actually works in Vancouver

Vancouver's standardized housing design program integrates the BC Housing concepts into a specific permit track. When a project uses a pre-reviewed design, the building department can treat the structural and architectural elements that match the pre-reviewed concept as already assessed, so the review workload is concentrated on the site-specific adaptations and any areas where the actual project departs from the standard concept. The result is faster reviews and a reduced permit fee, calculated as a percentage of what a fully custom project would pay.

To qualify, the project must use one of the accepted design concepts and the site-specific drawings must clearly identify where the project follows the pre-reviewed design and where it departs from it. Departures that change fundamental structural or code-compliance elements may disqualify the project from the reduced-fee track. This is something your licensed designer and permit consultant need to manage carefully, the fee saving is only available if the application is correctly structured.

Burnaby, Richmond, and the free designs outside Vancouver

The permit fee reduction program is administered by the City of Vancouver, it applies to projects permitting through Vancouver's building department. Other Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley cities do not necessarily have the same fee-reduction program linked to BC Housing's designs. That said, the design concepts are generally applicable to lot configurations found in Burnaby, Richmond, Surrey, and similar Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley municipalities, and the architecture cost saving, $30,000 to $50,000, applies regardless of which city the project is in, because that saving comes from not commissioning a custom design from scratch.

If your lot is in Burnaby, the free designs can still reduce your upfront design cost. They may or may not produce a permit fee saving depending on whether Burnaby's building department has an equivalent streamlined review program. As of mid-2026, Burnaby has been moving toward its own simplified permit process for standard SSMUH projects, but the integration with BC Housing's specific concepts is not as formalized as Vancouver's program. Confirm with your permit consultant before assuming the fee saving transfers directly.

Checking whether a free design fits your specific lot

BC Housing's 10 design concepts cover a range of configurations, different widths, depths, and unit arrangements, but they were not designed for every possible Vancouver or Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley lot. Before committing to a free design, the assessment questions are: Does the building's footprint, including setbacks, fit within your lot's buildable envelope? Does the floor plan work with your lot's grade, especially if there is more than about 1 metre of level change from front to back? Are the utility connections for your lot, water, sewer, gas, BC Hydro, in locations that work with the assumed mechanical layout?

• Lot width: most BC Housing concepts were designed for standard Vancouver lot widths (33 ft / 10 m is most common). Narrower lots may require adaptation that reduces the pre-reviewed benefit.
• Lot grade: designs assume relatively flat lots. A lot with more than 1 to 1.5 m of grade change front-to-back will require structural adaptation to the foundation, which changes the pre-reviewed elements.
• Setbacks and lot coverage: confirm the design's footprint fits your lot's setbacks after site-specific adaptation. Some lots near property boundaries require adjustments that change the unit layout.
• Tree retention: if your lot has protected trees that affect the buildable envelope, the design may need to shift or be reconfigured around their drip lines.
• Utility servicing: the BC Housing designs assume utility connections in standard locations. If your lot's servicing is atypical, the adaptation cost increases.

None of these issues automatically disqualify a lot from using a free design, they are variables that an experienced builder and licensed designer assess at the start of the project. The sites where a free design requires the least adaptation are also the sites where the fee saving is most fully realized. On more complex lots, the adaptation effort can approach the cost of designing from scratch, and a custom design may ultimately serve the project better.

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