City Duo’s Multiplex Map & Tracker

Updated: May 12th, 2024
It’s hard to believe that, until recently, over 50 square kilometers of Vancouver was zoned exclusively for detached houses. In other words, it was illegal to build anything other than a structure that was designed to be inhabited by a single family in over half of our city. Yes, there was some minor tinkering in recent years that allowed for the inclusion of basement suites, laneway houses, and finally duplexes in 2018, yet none of those policies created many new homes.

Simply put, there was a reason that seven “RS Zones” governed these small dwellings, even though they were much more simple to construct compared to large commercial or multi-family buildings. Of course all of that changed in 2023 when Mayor Sim’s ABC super majority council, along with the Vancouver Greens, and One City councillors unanimously approved the multiplex program. Years of public consultation consolidated these zones into an “Inclusive district“, where multiplexes with three to six homes are now welcome.

Note: We’ve excluded R1-1 zoned properties that are occupied by schools, parks, electrical substations, and most places of worship.

Home Count	Pin
Triplex	3 squares – □
Quadplex	Diamond– ◆
Five-plex	Star – ★
Six-plex	Snowflake – ❄

Naturally this excluded some areas, like the “character home” preservation RT zones that cover much of Kitsilano and the Grandview Woodland, as well as the First Shaughnessy Historic Conservation Area. Still, Hannah and I couldn’t hide our curiosity over the many questions this raised. Would this program fail like its duplex predecessor had? Would predictions that this would virtually destroy the Secured Rental Policy‘s viability materialize? And above all else, what areas of our city would see the most change?

We’ve sought to answer those questions, by methodically drawing out the boundaries of where multiplexes are now permitted, and noting the details of every proposal that has been filed so far. In the weeks, months, and maybe even years ahead we’ll continue to follow these developments, and let you know the answers we discover.

You can explore this spreadsheet in detail here.

Every address links to its respective application in Vancouver’s permit search database (POSSE).

For those inexperienced with spreadsheets, you can drag the horizontal scroll button to move left and right, or the vertical one to scroll up and down. We hope you find this helpful, any appreciate any comments you may have.