Garden Suite Grants in Ontario: What Exists and What Doesn’t

Status verified 23 July 2026. Municipal programmes change frequently — confirm directly with your municipality.

Ontario homeowners looking for a garden suite grant tend to have a frustrating time. The province permits the units, encourages them in policy, and provides no money for them. Meanwhile the pages that come up in search list programmes that closed two years ago.

The useful reframe: Ontario’s support is real, it’s just structured as a fee you don’t pay rather than a cheque you receive. This guide covers what that’s worth, which municipal programmes genuinely exist, and which widely-listed ones are dead.

Is there an Ontario garden suite grant?

No. There is no province-wide programme that pays an Ontario homeowner to build a garden suite, laneway suite or basement apartment.

Ontario’s role in this is regulatory. The province sets what municipalities must permit — under Bill 23, up to three residential units as-of-right on most serviced residential lots — and leaves funding to the federal government and to individual municipalities.

That produces a confusing landscape. Federal measures apply everywhere. Municipal programmes apply in a handful of places, come and go with the funding cycles behind them, and are often tied to conditions like affordable rent commitments. And the single largest saving isn’t a programme at all.

The development charge exemption

This is Ontario’s real support, and it is systematically undersold because it doesn’t feel like one.

What it does. Under the More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022 (Bill 23, Royal Assent 28 November 2022), the creation of additional residential units in existing houses and in certain ancillary structures is exempt from development charges. Specifically, the second and third units are exempt from development charges and parkland dedication. A fourth unit does not get the exemption automatically.

Why it matters more than a grant. Development charges in Ontario are levied per residential unit and are, in much of the GTA, among the highest in the country. Before Bill 23, adding a unit could trigger a charge large enough to sink a project on its own. Removing it doesn’t put money in your account, but it removes a cost that in many cases exceeded what provincial grant programmes elsewhere ever paid out.

We aren’t going to quote you a per-unit figure, because rates differ by municipality, by unit type and by year, and a number that’s right in one city is wrong in the next. What we’d point you to instead: your municipality publishes its own schedule. Toronto’s is on the City’s development charges rates page. Look up your own, find the residential rate, and that is roughly the scale of what the exemption is worth per unit.

Two current developments worth knowing. Toronto Council removed indexing for 2025 and 2026, holding rates at 2024 levels. And under a partnership announced in June 2026 with the federal and provincial governments, the City expects to implement development charge reductions of 40 to 60 per cent between 2026 and 2029, depending on unit type. If you’re modelling a project in Toronto, the direction of travel on this cost is downward.

Toronto’s deferral, on top of the exemption. For rear-yard suites specifically, Toronto’s Development Charges Deferral Program for Ancillary Secondary Dwelling Units — approved by Council in April 2018 — defers charges on an eligible laneway or garden suite, collecting them only if a new lot is created through subdivision, condominium or consent to sever within 20 years of the building permit being issued. For most homeowners who never sever, that is a deferral that never comes due.

Our tax and development charge guide covers this in more depth.

Which municipalities actually pay a homeowner?

Some do, and the honest answer is that the list is short, local and unstable.

Ontario municipalities that run homeowner suite programmes typically fund them through the federal Housing Accelerator Fund or provincial housing allocations. That means the programmes are time-limited by design: they open when funding lands and close when it’s spent. Hamilton, for example, has operated an additional dwelling unit incentive under the Housing Accelerator Fund. Several smaller municipalities and social services administration boards run second-unit programmes offering forgivable loans tied to affordable-rent commitments.

We aren’t going to publish a definitive list, and you should be wary of pages that do. By the time a list like that has been written, indexed and read, at least one row is usually wrong — which is precisely how the closed programmes below stayed in circulation for two years. The section at the end of this guide gives you a reliable way to check your own municipality in a few minutes.

What we can say with confidence about the HouseLyft Ontario markets: there is no broad homeowner grant across the GTA. Toronto’s support is the deferral described above plus the provincial exemption. Peel — covering Mississauga and Brampton — had a programme and it is on hold.

The programmes that are dead but still listed

These four appear constantly on “Ontario garden suite grant” pages. All four are unavailable.

The Canada Secondary Suite Loan Program ($80,000). Cancelled — it never became operational. Budget 2025 confirmed it would not be implemented. You will still find pages explaining how to apply, including some that quote the wrong amount.

Home Efficiency Rebate Plus (HER+). Closed to new applicants on 5 February 2024. It was replaced by the Home Renovation Savings (HRS) programme, launched 28 January 2025 and delivered by Enbridge Gas and Save on Energy, confirmed through November 2026. HRS is live — but read what it is: an energy efficiency rebate, offering up to $5,000 for gas-heated homes or up to $10,000 for electrically heated homes, covering insulation, windows, water heaters and similar upgrades. It funds efficiency work, not suite construction. If your build includes qualifying efficiency measures you may be able to claim on those specifically, but it is not a garden suite programme.

Peel Region’s “My Home” Second Unit Renovation Program. On hold and not accepting applications. The pilot ended in June 2024 owing to limited uptake, and the Region has been reviewing it since. It offered up to $30,000 in forgivable, interest-free loans to legalise existing unregistered second units, with a further $10,000 available for owners renting to a Region-referred tenant. It was aimed at legalising existing units rather than building new ones — a distinction frequently lost when it gets listed.

A York Region second-suite loan. We could find no evidence that such a programme exists or has existed, despite seeing it referenced. If you encounter it, verify directly with York Region before planning around it rather than treating the reference as confirmation.

Federal measures that apply in Ontario

The federal layer is the same everywhere and is where most Ontario homeowners will find actual support:

• CMHC’s refinance product, available since 15 January 2025 — up to 90% of as-improved value on properties with up to four units, as-improved value capped below $2 million, subject to owner or close-relative occupancy, funds going to construction rather than equity take-out, and no short-term rental of the new unit.
• The MHRTC — a refundable credit on up to $50,000 of qualifying expenditures, where the unit is created for a senior or an adult eligible for the disability tax credit to live with a qualifying relative.
• The GST/HST rental rebate — relief on qualifying new purpose-built rental construction, requiring four or more units. A single garden suite doesn’t reach it.

Our financing and grants guide tracks what’s currently live.

How to check your own municipality

Three steps, about ten minutes, and considerably more reliable than any list:

1. Search your municipality’s own website for “additional residential unit,” “second unit” or “secondary suite” plus “incentive” or “grant.” Use the city’s site directly rather than a search engine summary — municipal pages carry a “date modified” stamp, and that stamp is the single most useful thing on the page.
2. Check the Housing Accelerator Fund page for your municipality if it has one. Programmes funded that way are usually listed there, along with their status.
3. Call the housing or building department. Municipal staff will tell you in one call whether a programme is open, waitlisted or closed. This is faster than reading and it’s current.

While you’re there, ask about the reverse as well: what fees a registered second unit will attract going forward. Some municipalities apply ongoing utility or service charges once a suite is registered, and that belongs in your operating budget alongside any one-time saving. Our Toronto building guide covers the local process in more detail.

Find out what your Ontario lot permits

With no grant to chase, what determines an Ontario project is what your lot permits, what the build costs, and what fees your municipality actually charges once the unit is registered.

HouseLyft’s free property assessment covers the property side for your specific address — zoning, realistic configurations and the constraints that matter. Request your free report.