The latest issue of Designlines magazine is about how Toronto is — finally — embracing laneway life. And one of the featured homes is none other than Mackay Laneway House. Pictured above is architect Gabriel Fain sitting on the front steps. As some of you… Read More
All posts tagged “laneway suite”
Brampton is building a ton of secondary suites
Here is an interesting housing chart from Ryerson University’s Centre for Urban Research (CUR) using data from CMHC: What it shows is (1) the number of new housing using created through the addition of secondary suites, such as basement apartments and laneway suites; (2) the… Read More
Releasing the shackles on mid-rise development
I love mid-rise buildings. I think they are an incredibly livable scale of housing, which is why I am looking forward to moving into Junction House when we begin occupancies next year. But as we have talked about many times before on the blog, the… Read More
Building on top in London — how airspace developers are creating new housing supply in a tight market
London has a breed of specialist developers that are known as rooftop or airspace developers. What these developers do is build on top of existing and occupied buildings — mostly residential. Firm examples include Upspace and Apex Airspace. According to this recent WSJ article, the… Read More
From back of house to front of house
Daniel Foch, Daniel Clark, and Adam Darvay recently stopped by Mackay Laneway House to film a last-minute video tour before the new tenants move in. They had quite the rig setup (see above). There was also a drone flying around that is not pictured here.… Read More
Los Angeles adopts “standard plan program” to encourage ADU construction
The city of Los Angeles has taken an interesting approach to accessory dwelling units (what we generally call laneway or garden suites here in Toronto). In an effort to streamline the approvals process and bolster the supply of housing in the city, they’ve gone out… Read More
Mackay Laneway House is now complete and available for rent
Eleven years and a few setbacks later and we now have a completed laneway house. As Bill Gates once said, “most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” Construction is all finished up and… Read More
Double height space at Mackay Laneway House
The drywall started this week at Mackay Laneway House. This is a fun part of the construction process because it is that moment in time where, very quickly, the space transforms from a full on construction site to something that starts to resemble a livable… Read More
3 ways to get into real estate development
The most popular post on this blog is this one here called, “What real estate developers do and why I became one.” This post alone has been responsible for a good chunk of the organic traffic that this site receives since I wrote it back… Read More
Preferred method of communication
I was “on site” this morning for the installation of the helical piers for my laneway suite (that will be the topic of a separate post). More often than not, I’m in the office. But I like going on site because, well, building things is… Read More