Basement Apartments & Additional Residential Units in Burlington, Ontario
Burlington is built out, so it allows four units on a lot and waives parking on your first suite. But its generous ARU loan closed in 2025, and half the city can't build one at all.
Burlington permits up to four units on a serviced residential lot — a home plus up to three additional units — and requires no parking for the first one. But the city’s generous ARU loan closed in October 2025, and rural properties on a well and septic cannot have a suite at all.
HouseLyft helps homeowners in Burlington, Ontario work out what their lot legally permits, what a suite will cost to build, what it should earn, and which programmes actually apply — then connects them with a vetted builder.
Burlington is, by its own account, out of room. The city’s Official Plan says early-2000s development “extended the developed area of the city to its urban boundary,” leaving “little land left available for greenfield development.” Growth now has to come from inside the streets that already exist — and the smallest unit of that growth is a suite added to a house.
That’s why the rules here are unusually permissive. Burlington moved to four units per lot as-of-right and waived parking on the first added unit — deliberate moves to make an ordinary homeowner’s suite the city’s main tool for adding homes. The catch is that the money built to encourage it has largely moved on, and a large share of the city was never eligible in the first place. Both are worth understanding before you plan.
What Burlington permits on a residential lot
Under Zoning By-law 2020 (amendment 2020.494), Burlington permits up to three additional residential units — four in total — on a serviced lot where a detached, semi-detached or townhouse home is allowed. Only one of those units may sit in a detached building (a garden or coach-house suite).
A crucial condition: an added unit is only permitted on a “parcel of urban residential land,” which by definition requires municipal water and municipal sewers. The City is explicit that ARUs are not permitted on properties with a well, cistern or septic system.
A detached suite gets real room: an accessory building with a unit may reach 80 m², overriding the standard 50 m² accessory-building cap, and a lawfully existing accessory building can be converted. Maximum lot coverage for buildings with added units is the greater of the zone rule or 45%.
Up to 4Units permitted
1, up to 80 m²Detached suite
The parking break
Burlington’s parking rule favours the common case. The first added unit needs zero additional spaces; a second or third needs one space each. The main house still keeps its own two spaces, and tandem parking is allowed for the added units. For a homeowner adding a single basement suite, that’s one fewer constraint than in most GTA towns.
What the City charges
Burlington has no single “ADU permit fee.” Fees are calculated per square metre by service index, with a minimum permit fee of $377. Interior renovation work is $8.25/m²; because the schedule has no line item for an additional residential unit, the exact rate for your project is a classification the Chief Building Official makes — so confirm it with the City before budgeting. An occupancy permit is $191 per dwelling unit. Additional zoning, grading and forestry review fees can apply; verify current amounts directly, since they sit on a separate schedule.
On grants: the generous one has closed
For a while, Burlington ran the most generous ARU incentive in the region — forgivable loans of up to $70,000 for an interior unit and $95,000 for a detached one, plus a $15,000 legalization grant and municipal fee waivers. That intake closed on October 1, 2025. (If you’ve seen those figures attached to Oakville, that’s this Burlington program, misreported — Oakville never ran it.)
In May 2026 Council launched five new incentive programs, but every one requires a multi-unit development — none covers a homeowner adding a suite. The municipal fee-waiver end-date carries conflicting published dates and should be confirmed with the City. What remains automatic is the provincial development-charge exemption ($0 DCs on the added units), and, separately, Halton Region’s income-tested Ontario Renovates forgivable loan.
Where you can’t build at all
Because the servicing rule requires municipal water and sewer, roughly half of Burlington is off the table. The rural area north of Dundas Street — on wells and septic, inside the Niagara Escarpment and Greenbelt — simply cannot have an added unit, whatever the lot looks like. A Burlington plan has to clear the servicing question first.
What a Burlington suite earns
Burlington is not reported by CMHC as a standalone rental market — it sits inside the Hamilton area — so the cleanest local figure comes from MLS. Among condominium apartments leased on the TRREB system in Q1 2026, Burlington averaged $2,234 for a one-bedroom and $2,930 for a two-bedroom.
Read those carefully: they are condominium-apartment MLS leases, not purpose-built or basement-suite rents, and the condo segment runs higher than the broader market. Treat them as the top of the range, not a projection for a new suite.
What we do — and what we don’t
HouseLyft establishes whether a project stands up before anyone spends money on drawings: whether your lot is even serviced for an added unit, what it permits, what the build realistically costs, what it should rent for, and which programmes genuinely apply — including which “grants” have already closed. Where it works, we hand you to a vetted builder and stay involved. Where it doesn’t, we say so.
We are not a lender and we do not sell mortgages.
One correction worth carrying, because it is still advertised widely: the federal $80,000 Secondary Suite Loan was cancelled in Budget 2025 and never launched. Our financing guide sets out what is actually live.
Serving Burlington and the surrounding region
We work across Burlington and the wider GTA, including Oakville, Milton, Mississauga and Toronto — where the unit rules, servicing and incentives differ materially from Burlington’s. The full list is on our service areas page.
We also handle multiplex conversions and planning and permits across Halton Region.
Common questions about Burlington suites
Up to three additional units, for four in total, as-of-right on a serviced lot — with no more than one of them in a detached building.
No. The ARU Incentive Program — the $70,000–$95,000 forgivable loans and the fee waivers — closed to new applications on October 1, 2025. The 2026 replacement programs fund multi-unit developments, not homeowner suites.
Not for your first added unit — Burlington requires zero additional spaces for it. A second or third added unit needs one space each, and the house keeps its own two.
No. An added unit requires municipal water and sewer, so rural properties on a well and septic — roughly half the city — are not eligible, regardless of lot size.
There’s no flat ADU fee. Fees are per square metre with a $377 minimum, and the exact rate is set by the Chief Building Official because the schedule has no ARU line — confirm your classification with the City.
How this page was checked
Verified 20 July 2026, claim by claim — every figure above traced to the instrument it comes from.
Municipal rules, fees and incentive dates change — confirm current terms with the City of Burlington and Halton Region before committing to a project.
Find out what your Burlington lot allows
Enter your address and we’ll come back with whether your lot is serviced and eligible, what it permits, what a suite would realistically cost, and what it should earn.
- What your lot allows
- What it should earn
- Which programmes apply
Illustrative — your report is built from your own address.