Your SSMUH multiplex project is most likely to die in the planning stage if you take the typical approach to construction.
Below, I identify three keys to reducing the cost of building a SSMUH / multiplex and increasing the resale or rental revenue, and I'll explain how to achieve them.
The British Columbia provincial government introduced legislation for small-scale multi-unit housing (SSMUH) with the stated objective of densifying single-family residential neighbourhoods. The idea was to allow house owners to redevelop their property. However, the majority of homeowners interested in building a SSMUH / multiplex as their first investment or as a multigenerational home for themselves are unable to move ahead because the cost of construction is out of reach. Roughly 90% of SSMUH / multiplex projects that move forward are for developers who have the funding capacity for the upfront costs and are banking on the project turnaround time being shorter than for a larger apartment building.
Approaching this kind of project with the wrong strategy is what prevents families and other homeowners interested in this type of development from being able to get started. Using the strategy described below will improve the financial analysis and may be enough for your development plans to get off the ground. Maybe this is a way for your parents to live closer to you, or perhaps it's a way for you to get your grown children into the real estate game.
#1 Shorten Permit Approval Time
If you ask almost any seasoned developer how to reduce the cost of a project, the very popular answer for some time has been "shorter permit review times". Various professionals and officials have been exploring the idea of pre-approved, standardized designs with the intent to allow a plan checker nearly to automatically approve a development or building permit application that fits certain criteria.
Meet Planning Department Requirements
While the city Planning department's basis for evaluating an application are more subjective, there is one needless cause for much of the time spent on revisions and re-applications for a development permit: not addressing all rules at the initial application. A number of applications craft and develop a design argument that responds to only the major requirements in place.
However, city staff or councilors often point to other, perhaps less well-known requirements in place. At that point, everyone on the owner's project team has already formed a concept with which they're comfortable and behind which they stand both personally and financially. Reluctantly, the project team then spends time to revise the design and may have to wait a month or more before the revised application is reviewed again.
The solution here is to investigate ALL regulations - bylaws, guidelines, bulletins, technical memos, policies, strategies, and neighbourhood plans. Developing even a conceptual site plan without this research risks wasting months.
Coordinated Building Permit Application
Unlike the Planning department, the Building department's review is mostly binary and objective. Something either meets the applicable codes or it doesn't. The building code, electrical code, plumbing code, and other specific codes are expansive; meeting all of them on the first attempt is a tall order. It’s possible to meet all the requirements on the first try, but it takes time and careful attention to every detail in the project documentation.
Unfortunately, nearly every project is rushed to a permit application, and designs will typically miss some aspects of compliance. The plan checker sends back to the applicant a comment letter identifying areas that do not comply with the building code. The solution lies in allocating more time for a thorough review process, including a detailed analysis of the building, electrical, plumbing, and other relevant codes. This is a greater factor in multiplex permit applications than in single-family projects due to the higher inherent risk.
Another significant cause of permit delays is poor coordination between design teams. This happens when architectural, structural, and system drawings don’t match up, like when a beam is in one location in the structural plans but missing or misaligned in the architectural plans. These inconsistencies require time-consuming revisions before the plans can move forward.
City building department plan checkers often cite "better coordination" between design teams as the key to reducing review times. This means ensuring that the architectural and structural plans align perfectly. For example, walls, beams, and columns must appear in the same place and with the same dimensions across all sets of drawings, leaving no room for conflict or confusion.
Coordination might seem like a basic step, but as the architectural, structural, electrical, plumbing, and ventilation designs develop, teams often struggle to keep up with one another’s changes. This makes it easy for misalignments to slip through the cracks unless extra time and effort are spent on cross-checking.
Similarly, the designs for plumbing, ventilation, heating/cooling, and electrical systems must align with architectural and structural configurations to avoid conflicts. Plan checkers might flag issues like fire separation or drainage requirements during their review. If these are overlooked, they often surface as urgent questions during construction, requiring stressful on-the-spot adjustments and costly solutions that disrupt the build.
Again, the core solution is allocating adequate time and consultant fees to ensure all designs are thoroughly cross-checked for consistency after completion. Various checklists are widely available, to which consultants can refer to ensure the permit applications are coordinated, but the consultants must be given time to run through those checklists.
#2 Shorten The Construction Schedule
Wasted time during the permit review stage is expensive, but wasted time and confusion during the construction phase is more expensive. As you start paying the contractor's progress invoices, your loan begins to accrue interest. While construction is ongoing, you may be renting another home, paying still for a first mortgage, or incurring some other cost of accommodation. Whatever the situation, completing the construction project earlier will reduce your total costs.
Reduce Confusion With Better Documentation
Clear, detailed construction documents reduce uncertainty during the build. When contractors have precise drawings with labeled dimensions, material specifications, and assembly details, they spend less time asking questions or guessing at solutions. Including a builder’s input before permit submissions ensures that potential issues—such as unclear details or impractical designs—are addressed early. This prevents miscommunications that can cause costly delays or rework during construction.
Engage The Builder At Pre-construction
When you bring the builder into the project during the planning stage, they can help with practical details like estimating costs, sourcing materials, and planning the schedule. This early involvement gives the builder time to prepare by reviewing the design thoroughly, identifying potential construction challenges, and planning the most efficient approach to the build. For example, they can coordinate with suppliers to ensure timely delivery of materials, assemble the right team of tradespeople for the job, and map out a detailed construction timeline to avoid unnecessary delays. Being familiar with the project from the outset ensures they can hit the ground running once construction begins.
Standard Dimensions To Reduce Cutting
Designing with standard material dimensions reduces the need for cutting and fitting on-site, saving both time and money and satisfying one objective of sustainable design. For example, framing a wall height to match common drywall or sheathing board sizes eliminates the need to trim pieces to fit, while standard stud lengths allow for faster assembly. This approach also reduces waste, as fewer off-cuts are left behind, and helps tradespeople work more efficiently by minimizing repetitive measuring and cutting tasks.
Minimize Complex Details
Complex designs require tradespeople to spend more time interpreting plans and improvising solutions, which increases the chances of mistakes or delays. Standard techniques, like using pre-fabricated flashing or off-the-shelf roof vents, allow workers to follow familiar processes without needing specialized skills or tools. For example, a straightforward roof detail designed with commonly available components enables faster, more accurate installation because the steps are familiar and predictable for the crew. Better built buildings are more durable and more climate-resilient.
Simpler, Open Spaces
Complicated layouts with small rooms, unnecessary angles, or awkward connections take more time and effort to frame because they involve extra cutting, fitting, and fastening of materials. In contrast, designs with larger, open spaces and simpler room transitions are quicker and easier to construct. For example, a home with straight hallways and rectangular rooms allows the framing team to work more efficiently by following straightforward patterns, reducing both labor and material costs.
Simpler Instructions
In addition to the drawings, there is a written component of a project's construction documentation: the specifications, or "project manual." Beyond the drawings, the specifications are critical for translating the design intent into actionable construction steps and ensuring compliance with safety and performance standards. This written component details the required properties of materials, the standards they must meet, and any special procedures for their installation or assembly to ensure compliance with applicable building codes and standards.
Specifications are often recycled from previous projects for efficiency, but this practice can introduce errors or lead to irrelevant requirements if not carefully tailored to the current project. Builders often find specifications difficult to interpret due to overly technical language or content that doesn’t directly apply to the project. When specifications are reused without proper adjustments, they can cause confusion or errors during construction, as they may include irrelevant or conflicting requirements.
Aware of these issues, builders and general contractors may skim or avoid reading much of the document, trusting subtrades to address the relevant sections instead. Subtrades are expected to focus on the portions of the manual relevant to their work, but without clear oversight or communication from the general contractor, this division of responsibility can lead to missed details or conflicts between trades. The extent to which subtrades allocate resources to review specifications varies, and inconsistencies in their approach can lead to costly errors or delays.
This situation is similar to clicking "I agree" on terms and conditions that you haven’t actually read. Builders and subtrades may acknowledge the specifications but not fully digest them, leading to misunderstandings. While the analogy is lighthearted, the consequences in construction can be serious.
The solution is to reduce the effort needed to understand the text by making it shorter, clearer, and more relevant to the project. Simpler, shorter, and more direct specifications reduce misunderstandings, making them easier to follow and refine for the unique needs of a project.
#3 Build Bigger
Alignment
Designing a building with simplicity and efficiency at its core can yield significant cost savings during construction. By reducing unnecessary complexities in systems like framing, plumbing layouts, and mechanical components, builders can avoid redundant work and lower labor requirements. For example, a rectangular building with straightforward rooflines and compact plumbing runs is quicker and less expensive to build than one with irregular shapes or excessive articulation. Unfortunately, many designs don’t take full advantage of these cost-saving principles. This is often due to outdated habits in the industry, such as defaulting to traditional designs that may look impressive but are unnecessarily complicated to construct. Additionally, clients often have preconceived ideas about what a "good design" entails, forcing architects and builders into familiar yet inefficient processes.
Cost optimization doesn’t have to mean sacrificing functionality or revenue potential. Instead, strategic design choices can allow for more value within the same budget. For instance, by adopting efficient layouts and construction methods, you could build a slightly larger building without increasing overall costs. This is a common, successful strategy on many multifamily Passive House projects. A larger multiplex could include an additional rental unit or increased usable square footage for tenants, boosting rental income. Similarly, a large building footprint can attract buyers willing to pay a premium, ultimately increasing the property’s market value. Optimized alignment of form and systems, therefore, serves not only to streamline construction but also to maximize long-term financial returns.
High Performance
Municipalities are increasingly encouraging builders to prioritize energy efficiency by offering incentives like additional floor space allowances. In Vancouver, for instance, achieving Net Zero or Passive House certification allows a multiplex to exceed the standard floor space limit by more than 20%. This additional space can be a game-changer for small multifamily projects, providing room for an extra rental unit or larger living spaces that command higher rents or sale prices. These incentives reward not just environmental stewardship but also the builder's ability to think strategically about maximizing the project’s potential.
Reaching these high-performance standards requires upgrades such as thicker insulation, air-tight construction techniques, triple-glazed windows, and efficient mechanical systems. While these features come with a cost premium, thoughtful design choices can minimize the financial impact. For instance, by simplifying the structural framework, you can save on labor costs, which can help offset the expense of specialized materials. Similarly, optimizing plumbing runs or using centralized mechanical systems can reduce complexity and improve efficiency. Importantly, the cost of building a structure 20% larger isn’t a linear increase. Construction benefits from economies of scale: additional square footage spreads fixed costs, such as site preparation and permits, over a larger area. This means a 20% larger building might only cost 10% more to construct while generating 20% more income or sale value, making the investment highly attractive.
From A Different Perspective
Unlike many architects who design single-family houses and duplexes, my experience in multifamily and mixed-use developments has been geared toward profit. I've experienced both the mistakes that most property developers and consultant teams make and the smart decisions that a few developers and project teams make.
I've also worked with forward-thinking builders to incorporate new building science and address new construction realities. Designing to include the very technical aspects of and systems in a building and respond to ALL the governing regulations at the start of concept design are together the only way to get a higher-value result with little to no extra cost. This is where I come in.
My SAPPHR Strategy is a process that starts with a comprehensive pre-design phase before moving to an unusually detailed concept development. This up-front loading of effort makes the technical documentation and more importantly the construction phase go more smoothly than on an average project.
To download a copy of the SAPPHR Strategy client guide, use the link below.
Bucking the status quo, you could reap the benefits of changing the approach to building. Sell for a higher price, receive more rental revenue, or enjoy larger homes for your entire extended family. Or, you could just develop the expensive way that most people do, and barely make your pro forma break even.
If you book a free 30-minute call with me, I'll explain how to start this novel process.
DISCLAIMER:
The information included in this article is to an extent generic and intended for educational and informational purposes only; it does not constitute legal or professional advice. Thorough efforts are made to ensure the accuracy of the article, but having read this article, you understand and agree that Daniel Clarke Architect disclaims any legal liability for actions that may arise from reliance on the information provided in this article. I am an architect in BC, but readers are recommended to consult with their own architect on their specific situations before making any decisions or exercising judgement base on information in the article.
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