Canada’s population is surging at a time when the country’s stock of rental housing grows thinner by the day.

But Caivan, an Ottawa-based developer that extended its reach into the Greater Toronto Area three years ago, is introducing a novel idea at its Arbor West development in Brampton that, while short of a panacea, could serve as an inspiration for other builders.

Arbor West is a mix of single-family and townhomes, consisting of 33 units in the first phase and 116 in the second phase, which recently launched. Of the Phase II homes just over half - 60 to be exact - will offer dual entries and effectively create flex space that can be rented out. 

Troy Dosman, Caivan’s president of GTA homebuilding, told RENX Homes buyers are short on options in today’s housing market, squeezed between the rising cost of living and runaway home prices, but Arbor West’s legal secondary suites could help them bridge that gap.

“Our product development team came up with this idea; we started looking at the dual front and at what people are looking for at higher interest rates," Dosman said. "This is one of the key designs we came up with that address what buyers need today.”

He added that legal secondary suites would help homebuyers pay their mortgages amid the highest borrowing rates in nearly two decades.

“We've looked at this product and said that, if it's going to be a dual-front home that's in a certain price point, it needs to be something better.”

Homes designed to incorporate rental suites

The four-storey homes come with four bedrooms, three-and-a-half bathrooms and two kitchens so they can be split into upper and lower units. The upper units will command higher rents, Dosman said, and while he wouldn’t share Caivan’s analysis, he noted the monthly rental rate for a one-bedroom condo in Brampton is $1,500 to $1,800. A three-bedroom unit could fetch about $3,000 to $3,400.

He said Caivan’s internal analysis showed the units would, indeed, earn enough rental income to help homeowners pay their mortgages with ease.

Caivan is specifically inaugurating its “two-in-one townhome” at Arbor West because Brampton has a chronically undersupplied rental market. Should the project be well received, Caivan has big plans for its novel product.

“We have more of these coming up in other developments, like in Caledon, Oakville, Bolton and more in Brampton,” he said. “We hope it goes really well and successfully so we can replicate it in other developments.”

There’s reason to believe it will be successful. Caivan hosted a presentation for clients and brokers at its Arbor West sales centre in late August and more than 350 people attended.

If Caivan can meet its sales timeline, it intends to begin construction in May or June of 2025 and close in early 2026.

Multigenerational living

In lieu of the four-bedroom homes with secondary suites, buyers can opt for a five-bedroom unit that would specifically cater to multigenerational homes.

Multigenerational living is quite common among Brampton’s large South Asian community, which makes Arbor West an obvious choice for introducing this option.

“We’re trying to focus on people generating secondary income or multigenerational living,” Dosman said. “But I also look at the legal secondary suite being geared towards multigenerational living, too.

"You may want your kid or your grandmother or your father or mom to live with you, but have their own kitchen.”

According to Dil Banga, a broker with Royal LePage Flower City Realty, multigenerational living is increasingly popular in Brampton as a consequence of home prices skyrocketing in recent years. He added that even a salary of $100,000 would require frugal living choices these days, and because of that more families are pooling their resources

“A lot of people are resorting to multigenerational living,” Banga said. “There’s the mortgage, grocery expenses, car payments, and more, so both parents likely have to work, but who’s going to look after the kids? Multigenerational living allows the parents to work while the grandparents take care of the kids.”

When he was growing up, Banga’s grandparents lived with his family and looked after him and his siblings while his parents were at work. But he also noted that it’s customary for people to care for their aging parents in many South and East Asian cultures.

And with Canada welcoming record numbers of immigrants, multigenerational living might become a growing niche in the housing market. 

“It’s geared more towards immigrants, certainly to people who aren’t born in Canada,” Banga said.

Caivan's other housing projects

Arbor West is just one of Caivan's current housing communities in the Greater Toronto Area.

Caivan has three projects under construction in Oakville: The Saw Whet, which overlooks Bronte Creek Provincial Park and the Fourteen Mile Creek Heritage System; Creekside, a townhouse and single-family home development with up to 50-foot lots; and Parkview, a townhome project.

It’s also planning more developments in Oakville and Brampton, as well as Mississauga, Caledon and Bolton.

Caivan launched 14 years ago in Ottawa, where it’s presently selling a townhome and single-family development called Fox Run in the historic village of Richmond. In Barrhaven, the developer is building a similar development called The Ridge, as well The Conservancy, as a master-planned community.

Ottawa is also the site of Caivan's prefabrication facility, the highly automated, 140,000-square-foot Advanced Building Innovation Company, or ABIC.

In an interview with RENX Homes earlier this year, co-CEO Frank Cairo said the facility was turning out the components for 1,100 homes per year, and the firm hopes to add additional shifts and double its floor space to eventually manufacture the components for up to 5,000 homes annually.