What is Bill 44 (2023) SSMUH?

The Housing Statutes (Residential Development) Amendment Act, 2023 — Bill 44 — received Royal Assent December 7, 2023. "SSMUH" stands for Small-Scale Multi-Unit Housing. The Act reaches BC municipalities with a population above 5,000; smaller ones sit outside it. In those municipalities, lots zoned single-family or duplex must now permit 3 or 4 residential units. Lot size decides which: three on a parcel of 280 m² or smaller, four on a parcel larger than that. Six units are possible where a lot is larger than 280 m² and sits within 400 metres of a bus stop with frequent service. Most municipalities had to adopt implementing bylaws by the June 30, 2024 statutory deadline; some, including Township of Langley, adopted later under extension grants.

What did Bill 25 (2025) change?

Which lots the rules reach, not how many units they allow. The Housing and Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act, 2025 — Bill 25 — received Royal Assent November 27, 2025 and widened the definition of a "restricted zone". Under Bill 44 alone, some municipalities argued that a zone already permitting a house plus a secondary suite plus a detached accessory dwelling was not restricted, because it already allowed three homes, so the small-scale minimums did not apply. Bill 25 brings those zones inside, and makes clear that a zone containing any parcel limited to a detached house or duplex is restricted across all of its lots. Local governments had until June 30, 2026 to update their bylaws, extensions aside, and the Province may override a bylaw that has not caught up. If a lot was assessed in 2024 or 2025 and ruled out on the already-allows-three argument, that answer is worth asking again.

Are there lots the rules simply do not reach?

Several, and in the Fraser Valley they cover a lot of ground. Land in the Agricultural Land Reserve is the big one: additional homes there are the Agricultural Land Commission's call, and its rules sit above the small-scale housing requirements rather than beside them. So an acreage owner inside the Reserve does not get three or four units from Bill 44 — the Commission's additional-residence framework is what governs, and that is a different set of limits with different sizes. Parcels over 4,050 m² are also outside the rules, as is land with no connection to municipal water and sewer, which takes in much of the rural Township. So are heritage-protected properties and land where a hazard would get worse with more density. And in a designated transit-oriented area the small-scale rules give way to the higher transit densities instead.

How many units can I build on a single-family lot?

Three or four units per lot, and lot size decides which. A parcel of 280 m² or smaller carries the 3-unit minimum; a parcel larger than 280 m² carries the 4-unit minimum. The line falls on the three side, so a lot of exactly 280 m² gets three. That split is the provincial minimum rather than a local choice, so it holds across municipalities even though each writes its own bylaw. Six units are possible where a lot is larger than 280 m² and sits within 400 metres of a bus stop with frequent service — both conditions, not either — and "frequent" is a defined service level, buses at least every 15 minutes from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, which is why Township of Langley and Abbotsford have no lot that reaches six. Specific siting, height, setback, and lot-coverage limits are set by the municipal bylaw and must be checked locally — Bill 44 mandates the unit minimum but municipalities retain discretion over form and design.

Did public hearings get abolished?

For zoning bylaw amendments that conform to the Official Community Plan (OCP), yes. Bill 44 prohibits public hearings for in-OCP rezoning that adds residential housing. This materially accelerates the approval timeline — what used to be a 6-12 month rezoning process with mandatory public hearings is now a council-vote-only process for many in-OCP applications. Out-of-OCP rezoning still requires the public hearing.

Has Township of Langley adopted a SSMUH bylaw?

Yes. Township of Langley adopted Bylaw 6020 implementing SSMUH on November 18, 2024 (under an extended-deadline grant), the last municipality in Metro Vancouver to do so. The bylaw creates a use called the Houseplex — one building holding three or more dwelling units sharing a common access to the street, at least two of them principal units — and follows the provincial split: 3 units on lots of 280 m² or smaller, 4 units on lots larger than 280 m², in most residential zones, with site-specific siting, height, and lot-coverage parameters. No Township lot reaches six, because no stop in the Township meets the frequent-service standard. On April 27, 2026 council adopted Schedule 4 of the Official Community Plan, creating a Development Permit Area with form-and-character guidelines for small-scale housing. A development permit is now required unless a project meets the exemption conditions. Verify against the Township of Langley's current bylaw text and zoning map before relying on this for a specific lot.

Can I subdivide and sell each unit separately?

Generally yes, by stratifying the building under the Strata Property Act, but the specific path depends on the form (detached units? attached townhouse-style? secondary-suite-plus-coach-house?). Bare-land subdivision into separate fee-simple lots may also be possible in certain configurations but typically requires a full subdivision application. Talk to a planner + a real estate lawyer early — the form decision drives the resale + financing path.

How does SSMUH interact with the Foreign Buyer Ban?

The federal Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act remains in force through January 1, 2027 and does NOT exempt SSMUH-density properties. A foreign buyer cannot purchase a single-family lot to develop SSMUH (subject to the Act's specific exemption categories). However, properties with 4 or more dwelling units are NOT residential property under the Act — so a foreign buyer may purchase a fully-built 4+ unit property in some configurations. Verify against the Act's specific definitions before structuring a purchase.

How does SSMUH affect property values?

Far less than the zoning change suggested it would, and as of August 2026 there is not the evidence to say it has at all in the Fraser Valley. The theory is straightforward — more permitted density should mean more land value — and it was widely expected to show up in prices. What has actually happened through 2025 and 2026 is that the market has been slow, very few eligible lots have been redeveloped, and the ones that were did not sell for more than they would have before. The missing piece is the exit: to value a lot on its four-unit potential somebody has to know what four finished units sell for, and in Langley I am not aware of a single completed duplex or fourplex that has resold to answer that — quite possibly none has. Without a number at the exit, a premium at the entry has nothing behind it. The rest of this is a practising read of the market rather than a published statistic, and it should be treated as one: builders who have completed multiplexes in the region are having a hard time selling them, and my understanding is that the arithmetic works more often in Vancouver and Burnaby, where land is dearer and each added unit is worth more, and that even there the finished product has been slow to move. Nobody publishes a completed-multiplex resale count, so there is no source to cite either way. Anyone paying a small-scale-housing premium on a Fraser Valley lot today is paying for a thesis no transaction has yet demonstrated — worth knowing before rather than after.

What about Short-Term Rentals on SSMUH units?

STRAA (the BC Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act, effective May 1, 2024 in most BC municipalities) restricts short-term rentals to the operator's principal residence plus one secondary suite or ADU on that same property. SSMUH units that are NOT the operator's principal residence are NOT eligible for short-term-rental income in non-exempt municipalities. SSMUH plays primarily a long-term-rental and condo-resale game; STR is largely off the table.

Zoning reference

How many units can you build on your BC lot?

Small-Scale Multi-Unit Housing — SSMUH — under Bill 44 (2023) and Bill 25 (2025), and what it means for one specific lot in the Fraser Valley.

Last reviewed August 10, 2026 by Bronson Job PREC, REALTOR®Sources: BC Laws, BC.gov.ca, Township of LangleyCC BY 4.027 min readUpdated when rules changeHow we verify

A note from me: I’m Bronson Job, a REALTOR® (PREC) with Momentum Realty Inc., so I earn a commission when I help someone buy or sell. I write these guides to be genuinely useful — general information, not advice on your specific situation — and I take no payment from any third party named in them. How I verify.

Most BC municipalities must now permit 3 or 4 homes on lots that used to be zoned single-family or duplex, and up to 6 near frequent transit. If you own one of those lots, it may carry more building rights than the house on it suggests; if you are buying one, the zoning is part of what you are paying for. Below: the number for a specific lot, the exclusions that take much of the Fraser Valley outside the rules, what Bill 25 changed in 2026, and where each local municipality actually landed. Every figure traces to the SSMUH entry in the Codex.

The rule, in 1 sentence

On most BC lots previously zoned single-family or duplex, your municipal bylaw must now permit 3 or 4 residential units, and up to 6 on a larger lot near frequent transit. Public hearings prohibited for in-Official-Community-Plan (OCP) rezoning that adds housing.

The three tiers, and the test each one has to pass

Minimum residential units a BC municipality must permit, by lot area and distance to frequent transit
Units	Lot area	Distance to frequent transit
3	280 m² or smaller	Does not matter
4	Larger than 280 m²	Does not matter
6	Larger than 280 m²	Within 400 m of a qualifying stop

Three things about this table decide almost every real case. The 280 m² line falls on the three side — a parcel of exactly 280 m² carries the 3-unit minimum, and only a larger one reaches four. The 6-unit tier needs both conditions, not either. And “frequent” is a defined service level, not a judgment about how busy a stop looks: buses at least every 15 minutes, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays. Two of the four Fraser Valley municipalities below have no stop that qualifies, so no lot in them reaches six.

Every figure is a minimum a municipality must permit, not a cap and not a permit. A council may allow more. Height, setbacks, lot coverage and parking are set locally and decide what actually fits on the ground.

Three units, one building. This is the floor on the smallest lots.

Four, on a wider lot. Lot area is the only thing that changed — cross 280 m² and the minimum goes up.

Six needs the lot AND a prescribed stop within 400 m — not just a frequent one. A second building usually goes in behind, so lot depth starts to bind.

Plan views drawn to one scale, so the lots are comparable — the lot rectangle is what changes, because lot area is what decides the number. Building sizes are indicative rather than designed: the rules set a unit count, and the municipal bylaw’s setbacks, height and lot coverage decide what actually fits. Thresholds read live from the Fact Bank.

How many units does BC law require on your lot?

Where is the lot?The rules are provincial; the ceiling is local. Pick a municipality if it is one of the five covered here, or read the provincial floor below and confirm the rest with your own municipality.

Lot area

Divide square feet by 10.76 to get square metres.

Within 400 m of a prescribed frequent-service stopTwo words are doing work. Frequent is defined — buses at least every 15 minutes, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays. Prescribed is narrower still: the stop has to be on the transit authority’s Bill 44 mapping, judged at the lowest service level it runs at during the year. A busy stop on a main road can fail both.

Does any of this apply? (each one takes the lot outside these rules)

Outside the urban containment boundaryNot zoned for a detached house or duplexNo connection to municipal water and sewerIn the Agricultural Land ReserveHeritage-protected, or a hazard the density would worsenInside a designated transit-oriented area

4 units, as the provincial minimum

400 m² is larger than 280 m².

That is the floor a municipality must permit, not a permit. Height, setbacks, lot coverage and parking are set by the local bylaw and decide what actually fits.

This is the provincial floor only. Your municipality may cap it lower in practice — two of the five covered here do, because no local stop meets the frequent-service standard — or reach six by a route the province never describes. Ask your municipality what its own bylaw permits.

Provincial thresholds read live from the Fact Bank entry. Always confirm a specific lot against your municipality’s current bylaw and zoning map before relying on any number.

The gates that come before the number

Almost every page on this subject — including the earlier version of this one — opens with 3, 4 and 6 and treats the exclusions as a footnote. For a great deal of British Columbia the exclusions are the answer. The largest of them by land area is the urban containment boundary, and it is the one most commonly left out altogether.

Before the unit count — the gates, in order

Three, four and six are the last thing to work out, not the first. A parcel has to clear every test below before any of those numbers is reachable, and the first one it fails ends the exercise. They are listed in the order that costs the least to check.

Start with the Province’s own map. British Columbia publishes the small-scale entitlement parcel by parcel — search an address and it returns what that lot is entitled to. It is the authoritative answer for gates 2 and 3 below and it is free. Find it from the Province’s small-scale housing page.

Two things it will not tell you, and they are the two that end most Fraser Valley projects. It is a snapshot taken when the bylaws landed, so a parcel subdivided or rezoned since can read wrong. And it does not show servicing — whether the lot is on municipal water and sewer, let alone whether there is capacity to connect. That is gate 4, it is not on any map, and it is the rest of this page.

1.Is the municipality inside the Act at all?
Bill 44 reaches municipalities with a population above 5,000. Smaller ones are outside it, and so is most unincorporated land — a regional district electoral area is not a municipality.
How to check: Ask the local government whether it adopted a small-scale housing bylaw. If it never had to, there is nothing to apply.
2.Is the parcel inside the urban containment boundary?
This is the test that removes the most land in British Columbia and the one almost every explainer omits. The boundary is a regional growth-management line — in Metro Vancouver it comes from the regional growth strategy, elsewhere a municipality may set one through its Official Community Plan. Outside it, the requirement does not apply, whatever the zoning says. Two neighbours on the same road can land on opposite sides of it.
How to check: The boundary is mapped. Ask planning whether the parcel is inside it before checking anything else — it is a one-question answer and it ends the exercise more often than lot size does.
If it fails: Failing this one is not a dead end. The Province is explicit that land outside the boundary, in zones restricted to single-family use, still has to be allowed a secondary suite or an accessory dwelling unit. That is one home plus one more, rather than three or four — a smaller answer, not no answer.
3.Is the zone a restricted zone?
The rules apply to zones limited to detached houses and duplexes. Bill 25 (2025) widened this: a zone that already permitted a house plus a secondary suite plus a detached accessory dwelling used to be argued outside the requirement, and no longer is. A zone counts as restricted across all of its lots if any parcel in it is limited that way.
How to check: If a lot was assessed in 2024 or 2025 and ruled out on the already-allows-three argument, that answer is worth asking again — the ground moved under it on June 30, 2026.
4.Is the zone’s own minimum lot size 4,050 m² or less?
A separate question from how big the parcel is, and an easy one to miss. Township of Langley lists both: a property must not be larger than 4,050 m², and must not sit in a zone whose minimum lot size exceeds 4,050 m². A modest parcel inside an acreage-minimum zone fails on the second test while passing the first.
How to check: The zone’s minimum lot size is in the zoning bylaw, under the zone the parcel carries. Read the zone, not just the parcel.
5.Is it on municipal water AND sewer?
Both, not either. Land without a connection is outside the requirement, and this is the gate people miss most often locally, because a property can sit on a paved road among ordinary houses and simply not be on municipal sewer. It takes in much of the rural Fraser Valley.
How to check: Confirm with the municipality rather than inferring from the neighbourhood. It is a five-minute question that decides the whole exercise. Two traps the Province spells out: being inside a service area is not enough — the land has to be connected — and a strata’s own on-site water and wastewater does not count, because the system has to be operated by a local government. If a property connects later, the zoning may need updating before the density applies.
If it fails: Same as the boundary: not a dead end. Unserviced land in a single-family zone still gets a secondary suite or an accessory dwelling unit.
6.Is it outside the Agricultural Land Reserve?
Reserve land is outside these rules entirely. Additional homes there are the Agricultural Land Commission’s decision, under a framework that asks what size of additional residence a parcel may carry rather than how many units it may hold. The two sound similar and are not.
How to check: Reserve status is mapped and public. Check it directly rather than assuming from the zoning.
7.Is the parcel 4,050 m² or smaller?
About an acre. Larger parcels sit outside the requirement — which catches a great many Fraser Valley acreages that are otherwise serviced, urban-feeling and inside the boundary.
How to check: Lot area is on the assessment record and on title.
8.Is it free of a heritage designation or a hazard?
Narrower than it sounds, and the timing is the point. The heritage exemption covers land protected under the Heritage Conservation Act, land designated as protected under section 611 of the Local Government Act on the day the legislation came into force, and heritage revitalization agreements entered into before that day. A property designated since does not escape — the municipality still has to allow the minimum density, and cannot unreasonably restrict it. A heritage conservation area is not on that list at all: it governs form and character, which changes the design and the timeline rather than the unit count.
How to check: Ask planning which of the three, if any, applies — and when it was made. For hazard land the exemption needs a report from a qualified professional certifying both that the hazard exists and that the risk would increase at the permitted density.

The gates are provincial; the thresholds they use are in the Codex entry. Every one of them is a question for the municipality about a specific parcel, and none of them can be settled from a map on a website — this one included.

What changed in 2026 — Bill 25

Bill 44 was not the last word. The Housing and Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act, 2025 — Bill 25 — received Royal Assent on November 27, 2025 and changed which lots the small-scale rules reach. It did not move a single unit count or threshold. It closed an argument.

The argument was about the phrase “restricted zone”. Bill 44 applied to zones restricted to single-detached and duplex housing. Some municipalities read that narrowly: a zone that already permitted a house plus a secondary suite plus a detached accessory dwelling was, they argued, not restricted, because it already allowed three homes — so the 3-and-4 minimums did not bite. Bill 25 widened the definition to cover exactly those zones, and made clear that a zone containing any parcel limited to a detached house or duplex is a restricted zone for all of its lots.

Local governments had until June 30, 2026 to bring their bylaws into line, extensions aside. That date has passed. Where a bylaw has not caught up, the Province may override it directly rather than wait.

What this means practically: if you looked at a lot in 2024 or 2025 and were told the small-scale minimums did not apply because the zone already allowed a suite and a coach house, that answer is worth asking again. The zone may have moved underneath it.

Township of Langley — Bylaw 6020 and the Houseplex

The short version is below. The full local answers — what a Houseplex is and is not, the servicing and Agricultural Land Reserve exclusions, and the tests each municipality attached — are in the Township of Langley guide and the Surrey guide, where six units does exist — on the provincial transit test, and on the word “prescribed”. For the village specifically, the Fort Langley density check covers what the provincial entitlement map does not: servicing, capacity, fire flow and the heritage conservation area.

Township of Langley adopted Bylaw 6020 on November 18, 2024 — the last municipality in Metro Vancouver to adopt, under an extended-deadline grant from the original June 30, 2024 statutory deadline. It works by creating a new use, the Houseplex: one building holding three or more dwelling units that share a common access to the street, with at least two of them principal units. The use is written into the Township’s residential zones rather than bolted on as an overlay, so it sits inside the zoning a buyer already reads.

3 units on lots of 280 m² or smaller in most residential zones
4 units on lots larger than 280 m² and up to 4,050 m² (an acre), above which a lot is not eligible at all
Parking: at least one space per unit, and at least two per lot
Specific siting, setbacks, height limits, and lot coverage per the bylaw
No 6-unit tier anywhere in the Township today — see below

A lot that fails any of the eligibility gates is not left with nothing. The Township’s position is that ineligible properties are instead eligible for one residential unit plus one secondary suite, or an accessory dwelling unit, depending on zoning — which is the answer for a great deal of the rural Township, and a materially different project from a fourplex.

The 6-unit point is the one most commonly got wrong locally, including by pages that simply repeat the provincial rule. Six units need a stop with frequent service — buses at least every 15 minutes, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays — and no stop in the Township currently meets that standard. Every eligible Township lot therefore caps at four. Nor is the coming SkyTrain the route to six: the Township has one designated Transit-Oriented Area, at 196 Street in Willowbrook for the proposed Surrey-Langley station, and land inside a Transit-Oriented Area is excluded from the small-scale rules rather than upgraded by them — it carries the far higher transit densities instead, a minimum of 8 to 20 storeys depending on distance from the station. Six units is not the ceiling to watch for in Willowbrook; it is the wrong framework for that ground entirely.

One 2026 change matters to a timeline. On April 27, 2026 council adopted Schedule 4 of the Official Community Plan, creating a Development Permit Area with form-and-character guidelines for small-scale housing. The practical effect is that a development permit is required unless a project meets the exemption conditions — so the design rules are now settled and published, where for eighteen months after the zoning they were not.

Always verify against the live Township of Langley zoning bylaw and zoning map before relying on this for a specific lot — bylaws amend.

Where each Fraser Valley municipality landed

The province set a minimum; each council wrote its own bylaw, on its own timetable, in its own instrument. Two of the five below have no lot that reaches six units, which is the single most useful thing to know before pricing density into an offer.

Small-scale multi-unit housing bylaw status by Fraser Valley municipality
Municipality	The bylaw	Adopted	Most units	Local detail
Township of Langley	Zoning Bylaw 2500, amended by Bylaw 6020 (with Official Community Plan Bylaw 5760)	Nov 18, 2024	4	Creates a use called the Houseplex. Last in Metro Vancouver to adopt. No stop meets the frequent-service standard, so the 6-unit tier is unavailable.
City of Langley	Zoning Bylaw 2025, No. 3300 — a complete replacement, not an amendment	Mar 9, 2026	6	A different municipality from the Township, with a different answer. Permits plexes citywide and carriage homes, and provides for six units within 400 m of frequent bus service.
Surrey	Zoning Bylaw 12000, small-scale housing amendments	Jul 8, 2024	6	Twenty single-family, semi-detached, gross-density and duplex zones consolidated into nine small-scale zones. Six units where a lot of at least 281 m² sits within 400 m of a prescribed bus stop with 15-minute service. Over 4,600 Comprehensive Development lots keep their CD zoning with small-scale permissions added by lot size.
Maple Ridge	Zoning Bylaw 7600-2019, amended by Bylaw 7998-2024	Jun 25, 2024	6	Did not create new zones — added an Urban Infill Residential use to the existing ones, so the zone on title is unchanged. Six units on a lot above the 280 m² line and within 400 m of a stop running at least every 15 minutes, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays.
Abbotsford	Bylaw 3691-2025 (regulations) and Bylaw 3692-2025 (map), with Official Community Plan Bylaw 3690-2025	Dec 16, 2025	4	The map bylaw reaches roughly 20,700 properties inside the Urban Development Boundary. As in the Township of Langley, no stop currently meets the frequent-service standard.

Compiled from each municipality’s published small-scale housing pages, August 2026. Bylaws amend and transit service changes; confirm a specific lot against the current bylaw and zoning map before relying on any row.

The Province will give you the drawings

The design fees are usually the first real cheque an owner writes, and they are written before anyone knows whether the project pencils. BC publishes a catalogue of free standardized housing designs to take that cost out of the front of the process — ten of them, released in 2024, built as blocks that combine into duplex, triplex, fourplex and townhouse forms up to three storeys, plus laneway homes and an adaptable single-level cottage for aging in place.

They are drawn to the BC Building Code and described by the Province as close to building-permit ready. Two honest caveats. They still need an architect or designer to adapt them to a specific lot’s setbacks, servicing and grade. And “standardized” is not “pre-approved”: a municipality has to opt into expediting them, and adoption across the province is still early — so ask your municipality directly whether using one shortens your review, rather than assuming it does.

Worth knowing before you commission custom drawings for a fourplex that looks very much like one already in the catalogue.

Four units, one building — four narrow bays, each under its own street-facing gable, with the entries set into recesses and two of the upper decks screened in wood. A straight-on elevation, drawn as a type rather than as a portrait of a particular building: the massing is close to the larger houses already on a Willoughby street, which is usually the surprising part. Height, setbacks and lot coverage are set by the municipal bylaw and decide the real thing.

Investor pencil math — the considerations

Form vs. unit count. 4 units in a townhouse-style attached form vs. 4 in a fourplex stack vs. main + secondary suite + coach-house duplex have very different construction costs, marketability, and stratification options.
Public-hearing exemption. If your application matches the municipality’s Official Community Plan, no public hearing is required. This compresses the timeline materially. If it requires a change to that plan, the public hearing requirement remains.
Stratification. Strata Property Act subdivision lets you sell each unit separately. The strata route adds Form B fees, depreciation report obligations, and ongoing strata management — but materially expands the buyer pool.
BC Home Flipping Tax — check the builder exemption before pricing it in. The tax applies to a sale inside 730 days, but the Province exempts building activity that adds housing: demolishing a housing unit and constructing new ones, or adding a unit to a property that already has one. A small-scale project is usually the exempt case rather than the taxed one. The return still has to be filed even where no tax is owing, and the exemption turns on facts about the seller and the build, so confirm it against your own circumstances rather than assuming either way.
GST, and who is buying. New units carry GST, but the first-time home buyers’ rebate now removes the federal 5% entirely on a new home up to $1M, tapering to nothing at $1.5M. Small-scale units often land inside that band, which matters more to the resale pool than to the build budget — a fourplex unit priced under $1M is materially cheaper for a first-time buyer than the same unit at $1.05M.
STRAA forecloses STR income. Short-term-rental income on non-principal-residence units is restricted in most BC municipalities — pencil at long-term rental rates only.
Foreign Buyer Ban. The federal ban runs through January 1, 2027 and applies to most SSMUH-density acquisitions — verify the specific exemption category before structuring a foreign-buyer purchase.

Worked examples — illustrative pencil math

Each example uses round numbers to show the shape of the math, not a quote. Land prices, construction costs, and resale assumptions change quarter to quarter — run a live pro forma with current comps and a builder estimate before treating any number here as actionable.

Example 1 — Willoughby 4-unit townhouse-form fourplex

6,500 sq ft RS lot — about 604 m², so larger than the 280 m² line and inside the 4,050 m² ceiling. Bylaw 6020 permits 4 units. Illustrative pencil: land $1.55M + soft costs + four-unit attached build at roughly $325/sq ft over a 5,200 sq ft above-grade envelope ≈ $1.7M build = $3.25M+ total cost. Each unit sells in the high-$800Ks under current comps, which puts them under the $1M line where a first-time buyer pays no GST. On the tax side a build like this is usually the exempt case for the BC Home Flipping Tax rather than the taxed one, since it demolishes a housing unit and constructs new ones — so the 730-day clock is a filing question, not automatically a 20% haircut. What is left is the part that actually decides it: carrying costs, and whether four finished units sell. Stratification under the Strata Property Act is the resale path. See the value question below before treating the exit as given.

Example 2 — Surrey 6-unit lot, and the word that decides it

8,000 sq ft Surrey lot — about 743 m², comfortably over the 281 m² the six-unit tier needs. Whether it reaches six turns entirely on the stop: it has to be a prescribed bus stop with 15-minute service, meaning one on the transit authority’s Bill 44 mapping judged at the lowest service level it runs at across the year. Not a busy-looking stop, and not a future station — a Surrey-Langley SkyTrain station that has not opened confers nothing under these rules, and once it does open the surrounding lots become a Transit-Oriented Area, which takes them out of the small-scale framework and into higher densities instead. Where the six does apply, it changes the per-door land cost meaningfully: the same $1.6M land spread across 6 doors instead of 4. Construction gets more complex too — likely a stacked form rather than a townhouse row — so cost per square foot rises against that. Check the stop before you price the sixth and seventh door into an offer.

Example 3 — Fort Langley heritage parcel (the variance path)

6,500 sq ft Fort Langley village parcel with a 1912 character home. Bylaw 6020 permits small-scale density on paper; the village’s heritage context, the Agricultural Land Reserve perimeter and Township design standards constrain form in practice — and a heritage designation by bylaw, as opposed to heritage character, takes a property out of the rules altogether. The Township’s first small-scale application is the reference case: the George Towle House at 8813 Glover Road, an 1912 home proposed to be repositioned on its lot with a triplex built behind it for four units in total. Council approved a variance for the site’s driveway onto 88 Avenue on May 12, 2025, on an 8–1 vote. Time-to-permit on a path like this runs longer than a clean Willoughby lot, and the reason to do it is the parcel rather than the unit count.

Frequently asked questions

What is Bill 44 (2023) SSMUH?
The Housing Statutes (Residential Development) Amendment Act, 2023 — Bill 44 — received Royal Assent December 7, 2023. "SSMUH" stands for Small-Scale Multi-Unit Housing. The Act reaches BC municipalities with a population above 5,000; smaller ones sit outside it. In those municipalities, lots zoned single-family or duplex must now permit 3 or 4 residential units. Lot size decides which: three on a parcel of 280 m² or smaller, four on a parcel larger than that. Six units are possible where a lot is larger than 280 m² and sits within 400 metres of a bus stop with frequent service. Most municipalities had to adopt implementing bylaws by the June 30, 2024 statutory deadline; some, including Township of Langley, adopted later under extension grants.
What did Bill 25 (2025) change?
Which lots the rules reach, not how many units they allow. The Housing and Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act, 2025 — Bill 25 — received Royal Assent November 27, 2025 and widened the definition of a "restricted zone". Under Bill 44 alone, some municipalities argued that a zone already permitting a house plus a secondary suite plus a detached accessory dwelling was not restricted, because it already allowed three homes, so the small-scale minimums did not apply. Bill 25 brings those zones inside, and makes clear that a zone containing any parcel limited to a detached house or duplex is restricted across all of its lots. Local governments had until June 30, 2026 to update their bylaws, extensions aside, and the Province may override a bylaw that has not caught up. If a lot was assessed in 2024 or 2025 and ruled out on the already-allows-three argument, that answer is worth asking again.
Are there lots the rules simply do not reach?
Several, and in the Fraser Valley they cover a lot of ground. Land in the Agricultural Land Reserve is the big one: additional homes there are the Agricultural Land Commission's call, and its rules sit above the small-scale housing requirements rather than beside them. So an acreage owner inside the Reserve does not get three or four units from Bill 44 — the Commission's additional-residence framework is what governs, and that is a different set of limits with different sizes. Parcels over 4,050 m² are also outside the rules, as is land with no connection to municipal water and sewer, which takes in much of the rural Township. So are heritage-protected properties and land where a hazard would get worse with more density. And in a designated transit-oriented area the small-scale rules give way to the higher transit densities instead.
How many units can I build on a single-family lot?
Three or four units per lot, and lot size decides which. A parcel of 280 m² or smaller carries the 3-unit minimum; a parcel larger than 280 m² carries the 4-unit minimum. The line falls on the three side, so a lot of exactly 280 m² gets three. That split is the provincial minimum rather than a local choice, so it holds across municipalities even though each writes its own bylaw. Six units are possible where a lot is larger than 280 m² and sits within 400 metres of a bus stop with frequent service — both conditions, not either — and "frequent" is a defined service level, buses at least every 15 minutes from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, which is why Township of Langley and Abbotsford have no lot that reaches six. Specific siting, height, setback, and lot-coverage limits are set by the municipal bylaw and must be checked locally — Bill 44 mandates the unit minimum but municipalities retain discretion over form and design.
Did public hearings get abolished?
For zoning bylaw amendments that conform to the Official Community Plan (OCP), yes. Bill 44 prohibits public hearings for in-OCP rezoning that adds residential housing. This materially accelerates the approval timeline — what used to be a 6-12 month rezoning process with mandatory public hearings is now a council-vote-only process for many in-OCP applications. Out-of-OCP rezoning still requires the public hearing.
Has Township of Langley adopted a SSMUH bylaw?
Yes. Township of Langley adopted Bylaw 6020 implementing SSMUH on November 18, 2024 (under an extended-deadline grant), the last municipality in Metro Vancouver to do so. The bylaw creates a use called the Houseplex — one building holding three or more dwelling units sharing a common access to the street, at least two of them principal units — and follows the provincial split: 3 units on lots of 280 m² or smaller, 4 units on lots larger than 280 m², in most residential zones, with site-specific siting, height, and lot-coverage parameters. No Township lot reaches six, because no stop in the Township meets the frequent-service standard. On April 27, 2026 council adopted Schedule 4 of the Official Community Plan, creating a Development Permit Area with form-and-character guidelines for small-scale housing. A development permit is now required unless a project meets the exemption conditions. Verify against the Township of Langley's current bylaw text and zoning map before relying on this for a specific lot.
Can I subdivide and sell each unit separately?
Generally yes, by stratifying the building under the Strata Property Act, but the specific path depends on the form (detached units? attached townhouse-style? secondary-suite-plus-coach-house?). Bare-land subdivision into separate fee-simple lots may also be possible in certain configurations but typically requires a full subdivision application. Talk to a planner + a real estate lawyer early — the form decision drives the resale + financing path.
How does SSMUH interact with the Foreign Buyer Ban?
The federal Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act remains in force through January 1, 2027 and does NOT exempt SSMUH-density properties. A foreign buyer cannot purchase a single-family lot to develop SSMUH (subject to the Act's specific exemption categories). However, properties with 4 or more dwelling units are NOT residential property under the Act — so a foreign buyer may purchase a fully-built 4+ unit property in some configurations. Verify against the Act's specific definitions before structuring a purchase.
How does SSMUH affect property values?
Far less than the zoning change suggested it would, and as of August 2026 there is not the evidence to say it has at all in the Fraser Valley. The theory is straightforward — more permitted density should mean more land value — and it was widely expected to show up in prices. What has actually happened through 2025 and 2026 is that the market has been slow, very few eligible lots have been redeveloped, and the ones that were did not sell for more than they would have before. The missing piece is the exit: to value a lot on its four-unit potential somebody has to know what four finished units sell for, and in Langley I am not aware of a single completed duplex or fourplex that has resold to answer that — quite possibly none has. Without a number at the exit, a premium at the entry has nothing behind it. The rest of this is a practising read of the market rather than a published statistic, and it should be treated as one: builders who have completed multiplexes in the region are having a hard time selling them, and my understanding is that the arithmetic works more often in Vancouver and Burnaby, where land is dearer and each added unit is worth more, and that even there the finished product has been slow to move. Nobody publishes a completed-multiplex resale count, so there is no source to cite either way. Anyone paying a small-scale-housing premium on a Fraser Valley lot today is paying for a thesis no transaction has yet demonstrated — worth knowing before rather than after.
What about Short-Term Rentals on SSMUH units?
STRAA (the BC Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act, effective May 1, 2024 in most BC municipalities) restricts short-term rentals to the operator's principal residence plus one secondary suite or ADU on that same property. SSMUH units that are NOT the operator's principal residence are NOT eligible for short-term-rental income in non-exempt municipalities. SSMUH plays primarily a long-term-rental and condo-resale game; STR is largely off the table.

Primary sources: Bill 44 — Housing Statutes (Residential Development) Amendment Act, Bill 25 — Housing and Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act, 2025, the provincial policy manual and site standards, and the SSMUH provincial implementation page.

What to read next

· Transit-Oriented Development (Bill 47) — the companion 2023 housing legislation; a lot inside a designated transit-oriented area is outside the small-scale rules entirely, and carries the higher transit densities instead
· BC Home Flipping Tax — the 730-day rule, and the builder exemption that usually covers a redensification
· Foreign Buyer Ban (full reference) — an SSMUH 4-unit project may exit the federal ban (4+ units) but still triggers BC FBT on individual unit closings
· Buyer due-diligence checklist — SSMUH covenants, party-wall agreements, and shared-services issues every multi-unit buyer should check
· BC mortgage stress test — a multi-unit SSMUH deal layers a debt-service-coverage test on the building on top of the borrower’s own income-ratio qualification
· Bill 44 (2023) SSMUH, TOD Areas (Bill 47), and Bill 44 (2022) strata reform — the three glossary entries that govern BC's 2022-2024 housing-supply rewrite
· Cap rate calculator and affordability calculator — model SSMUH multi-unit cap rate at qualifying-rate, not the seller's pro-forma rate
· How much can rent go up in BC? — the annual cap that decides what a held unit can actually earn — pencil on it, not on market rent
· Langley (regional) and Surrey (regional) — the two parent regional surfaces that aggregate each city\'s SSMUH framework (Langley Bylaw 6020 + 3300 split, Surrey\'s 2024 SSMUH adoption with the 6-unit tier within 400 m of transit)
· Willoughby, Langley City, and Cloverdale — three Lower Mainland submarkets with SSMUH-eligible single-family lot stock
· Walnut Grove, Brookswood-Fernridge, Murrayville, and Yorkson — Langley sub-markets carrying the largest single-family lot inventories the SSMUH framework will touch first
· Fraser Heights, Guildford, Fleetwood, and South Surrey — Surrey sub-markets where the 2024 SSMUH adoption + the 6-unit transit-proximity tier interact with deep detached-home stock
· Fort Langley — the heritage case study; the George Towle House on Glover Road was the Township’s first small-scale application, with a driveway variance approved in May 2025
· Fort Langley density year (insight) — long-read on the four Township council votes that put SSMUH into force at the village scale, and the recused mayor at the centre of them
· BC Real Estate Codex

Sources: BC Government · BC Laws · Other

Verified sources (5)· re-verified 2026-08-10Click to expand

Every claim on this page is sourced to a primary government, regulator, or industry-association URL. We re-verify quarterly; the verification dates below show when each source was last confirmed against the live government page.