**Originally written in 2021, this page HAS been updated to reflect the 2024 changes to land-use rules prompted by the provincial density mandates.**

When looking at houses, my clients will often ask me, “Would we be allowed to build a carriage house on this property?” A carriage house or coach house is a detached garage with a dwelling unit attached, but we also use the term more loosely to refer to any secondary suite in an accessory building (a building that is DETACHED from the main dwelling).

Suites in accessory buildings were only legalized in Nanaimo in 2008, via an addition to the zoning bylaws. The rules were also relaxed dramatically in June 2024 in response to BC's Small-Scale Multi-Unit Housing (SSMUH) legislation and "Increasing Housing…

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