Vancouver has always been on the leading edge of energy efficiency, and all things about sustainable living. It was one of the first cities in Canada to really embrace the notion of increasing urban density and make tangible moves towards it.

British Columbia's new Secondary Suite Incentive Program for homeowners is a great follow up to the Laneway House Program from a decade ago, its Greenest City Initiative, and above all the BC Step Code for better energy efficiency in new home building.

Also included in this program are granny suites and apartments, so you can convert unused garage space or basements into rentable living space. The federal and provincial governments are using this home building incentive as a way to encourage urban density, which makes better use of existing infrastructure as well as limiting urban sprawl and protecting green spaces around cities.

How to meet Canada's house building targets

Another reason behind this push, we believe, would be that the Trudeau government has set a pretty lofty goal of adding 4 million homes to the Canadian housing stock in a mere 6 years.

This house building loan program offers forgivable loans up to 50% of the total cost of your build or renovation, to a maximum of $40,000.

So join the party – if you’ve had any inclination to build an ADU (accessory dwelling unit), garden house, laneway house, coach house, basement apartment, the timing is perfect. If you build a rental unit and have a long term tennant at below market rates for 5 years, the loan will be forgiven.

Under this program, the province will offer forgivable loans to 1,000 homeowners every year as an incentive to increase low-income housing. The short term target the city has set is to have an additional 3,000 new rental units at below market rates.

The  program will also provide homeowners with access to as much as $80,000 in low-interest loans to add secondary rental units to their properties. The loans maximum was initially $40,000, but that doubled in December. Perhaps Ottawa was looking for a little holiday image enhancement, but whatever the reason, this is exactly the way to add badly needed housing units in urban areas.

When is the program available?

This is a three-year pilot program that will be on May 2nd. Homeowners should apply for loans at B.C. Housing’s secondary suite website.

Now you know about Vancouver's affordable living loan incentives for apartments, granny suites and ADUs. Keep up with the latest news in green home construction, and learn all you need to know about sustainable home building in the pages below and the Ecohome Green Building Guide.

Find more about green home construction and reap the benefits of a free Ecohome Network Membership here!