Secondary Suite Grants in Alberta: What’s Actually Available

Status verified 23 July 2026.

If you have searched for an Alberta secondary suite grant, you have probably found a list naming SHARP, RAMP and Calgary’s incentive, presented as three routes to funding your basement suite. That list is misleading in two of three cases, and incomplete in the third.

This guide sets out what Alberta actually offers, what those programmes really do, and — more usefully — why Alberta homeowners often end up better off than their Ontario counterparts despite having fewer programmes to apply to.

What does Alberta actually offer?

Directly, for building a secondary suite: very little.

There is no provincial programme that pays an Alberta homeowner to build a suite. The province’s housing supports are targeted at seniors and at people with mobility-related disabilities, and they are aimed at the applicant’s own living conditions rather than at creating rental units.

At the municipal level:

• Calgary runs a Secondary Suite Incentive Program — real, but waitlisted and narrower than most descriptions suggest.
• Edmonton does not currently list a secondary suite grant. Its secondary suites page covers zoning and definitions with no funding programme attached. You may still encounter references to an older “Cornerstones” grant in circulation; that material dates from a much earlier bylaw era and is not presented as a live programme on the City’s current pages.

The federal measures — CMHC’s refinance product, the MHRTC, the GST rental rebate — apply in Alberta as everywhere else.

SHARP: a loan, not a suite grant

The Seniors Home Adaptation and Repair Program (SHARP) is frequently listed as an Alberta secondary suite grant. It is neither a grant nor a suite programme.

What it actually is: a low-interest home equity loan of up to $40,000 for Alberta seniors and senior couples, to fund repairs, adaptations and renovations to their own primary residence. The stated purpose is helping seniors stay in their homes longer.

The conditions:

• Total annual income of $75,000 or less
• Minimum 25% home equity in the primary residence where the work is done
• Current interest rate of 4.45%, reviewed each April and October
• No monthly repayments — the loan is repaid when the home is sold or from the estate

That last feature is genuinely attractive, and for an eligible senior doing needed home repairs SHARP is a good programme. But building a rental suite is not among its stated purposes, and the money is a loan secured against your home, not a grant. If you think your particular project might fall within the eligible work, ask the programme directly before assuming — don’t plan around a listicle.

RAMP: accessibility, not construction

The Residential Access Modification Program (RAMP) is the other programme routinely mislabelled.

RAMP provides grants to lower-income Albertans with mobility challenges to modify their home so they can enter and move around inside it. Per Alberta.ca, the amounts are up to $12,000 per person each benefit year (1 April to 31 March) and up to $24,000 per person within 10 years.

Eligibility is narrow and medical:

• An Albertan of any age who uses a wheelchair, or a senior aged 65+ who uses a four-wheel walker on an ongoing basis, or someone living with a listed progressive neuro-degenerative condition
• Within strict income thresholds — for a single adult, a maximum family income of $36,900; for a couple with no children, $46,500, rising with family size
• The modifications must enable you to enter and move within your own living space

The $24,000 figure that circulates on grant lists is the ten-year cap, not a per-project amount, and it funds ramps, lifts and accessible bathrooms — not the construction of a rental unit.

RAMP is a valuable programme for the people it’s designed for. It just isn’t what it’s frequently advertised as.

Calgary’s incentive and its waitlist

The City of Calgary’s Secondary Suite Incentive Program is the one genuine suite programme in Alberta — with two conditions that most write-ups omit.

What it offers: up to $10,000 to qualifying homeowners to build and register a legal secondary suite. Applications are reviewed first-come, first-served.

Condition one — it’s waitlisted. As of 24 June 2026, new applications are placed on a waitlist, and the City states funding may not be available for those applying after that date. Files are added from the waitlist if funds become available.

Condition two — main dwelling only. The City is explicit: the incentive applies to suites built within the main dwelling, not to backyard or detached suites. If you’re planning a garage suite or backyard house, this programme does not apply to you at all.

There’s a structural point worth understanding: the incentive follows compliance rather than funding it. The suite has to be legal, permitted and registered to qualify — so it rewards doing things properly rather than reducing the cost of getting there. Our Calgary building guide covers the permitting process.

The bigger Alberta advantage

Here is the part that matters more than any of the above, and that almost nobody frames properly.

Alberta’s cost structure is its housing programme.

Two things:

No provincial sales tax. Alberta is the only province without one. British Columbia charges 7% PST on many construction inputs. On a suite build, that difference is applied to a large share of the materials cost — and unlike a grant, you don’t have to apply for it, qualify for it, or join a waitlist.

No Ontario-style per-unit development charges. In much of the GTA, adding a residential unit has historically triggered development charges substantial enough that Ontario’s Bill 23 exemption on second and third units is worth more to a homeowner than most grant programmes ever paid. Alberta homeowners simply don’t face the equivalent charge on an infill suite. Municipal fees still apply — permits, inspections, and any local levies — so confirm your own city’s schedule, but the per-unit charge that dominates Ontario budgeting isn’t part of the picture.

Put together: an Alberta homeowner building a suite is generally starting from a lower cost base than an Ontario or B.C. homeowner, before any programme is considered. That advantage is invisible because nobody announces it, but it is larger and more reliable than a $10,000 waitlisted incentive.

Add Edmonton’s zoning, which permits several units on an ordinary residential lot, and the province’s overall position for small-scale housing is strong — just not through the mechanism people go looking for. Our Edmonton building guide covers what that zoning permits.

Federal supports that still apply

Alberta homeowners have the same access as everyone else to:

• CMHC’s refinance product — up to 90% of as-improved value on properties with up to four units, from 15 January 2025, subject to owner or close-relative occupancy and funds going to construction
• The MHRTC — a refundable credit on up to $50,000 of qualifying expenditures, where the suite is for a senior or an adult eligible for the disability tax credit living with a qualifying relative
• The GST rental rebate — federal GST relief on qualifying new rental construction, but only at four or more units

And one thing that does not apply: the $80,000 Canada Secondary Suite Loan Program was cancelled and never launched. Any Alberta-focused page still listing it as a route is out of date. Our financing and grants guide tracks what’s live.

Find out what your Alberta property supports

With no grant to chase in most of the province, the decision comes down to what your lot permits, what the build costs, and how you’d finance it — all of which can be established before you spend anything.

HouseLyft’s free property assessment covers your zoning, what configurations are realistic on your lot, and where the cost drivers sit. Request your free report.