Not every carriage home is built to be rented out. Many are built so a parent, an adult child, or both, can have their own front door on the same property.
Written by Serge, Founder, Kelowna Carriage Homes
A carriage home built for family is designed around one household staying for years, not a rotating tenant staying for months. That usually means a full kitchen and independent laundry regardless of size, more storage than a rental unit needs, and a layout planned around the specific people who will live there rather than the broadest possible renter pool.
The zoning and size limits are the same either way: Kelowna caps a carriage house at 90 m² (about 970 sq ft), one per lot, with one added parking stall required, whether the person living there pays rent or not.
A single-storey plan, covered in more detail in the design ideas guide, avoids stairs entirely, which matters more here than in a rental unit built for maximum income. Wider doorways, a curbless shower, and lever-style door handles cost little to plan for at the design stage and a great deal more to retrofit later.
Proximity to the main house is worth designing for directly: a covered or short walkway between the two structures, sightlines between them, and enough separation that both households still have privacy. These are decisions made once, at the design stage, not adjustments made after move-in.
Nothing in the bylaw requires a carriage house or secondary suite to be rented to be legal; using it for family is a legitimate, common reason to build one. The permits & zoning process is identical either way; only your own use of the finished space changes.
Some owners build with a family member in mind for now, and plan to convert the unit to a rental later once circumstances change. The permit and construction process does not need to know which one it will be; the design decisions above, though, are worth making with the honest long-term plan in mind rather than the more flexible one.
The CMHC-insured refinance option, up to 90% of your principal residence’s value since January 15, 2025, is built around a suite that generates rental income under a minimum 90-day tenancy; a lender may treat it differently, or not qualify it the same way, if the unit will house family rent-free. Cash, a HELOC, roughly prime plus 0.5%, about 4.95% as of September 2026, or a standard mortgage are the more straightforward routes when the unit is not meant to produce income. Full detail is on the financing & incentives page.
Even without rental income, a legal, permitted carriage home still adds resale value and legal floor area to your property; it also gives you the option to rent it out in the future without further permitting.
Cost is not meaningfully different for a family-use unit versus a rental unit of the same size; the $350,000 to $550,000 turnkey range applies either way, and the accessibility features discussed above add a modest amount rather than a different order of magnitude. See the cost breakdown for what actually moves the number.
An aging parent moving in usually calls for single-storey living, a main-floor bedroom and bathroom if any stairs exist at all, and proximity to the main house for regular contact, sometimes with a connecting walkway. Cost and design decisions lean toward accessibility over rental-optimized square footage.
An adult child returning home, or staying while saving for a first property, usually wants more independence than proximity: an entrance well separated from the main house, a full kitchen and laundry, and a layout closer to what a long-term tenant would want, even though no tenant is involved. The design ideas guide covers both directions in more detail.
If a family member later moves out, converting the unit to a rental does not require a new permit, only reviewing which financing product you used and switching your insurance policy from a family-occupied to a tenant-occupied designation.
A curbless shower, wider doorways, and a main-floor bedroom and bathroom generally add a modest amount within the $350,000 to $550,000 range, not a separate cost category. The cost breakdown covers what else moves that number; accessibility features are a design choice made early, not an expensive retrofit added later.
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Costs, timelines, rents, and incentive amounts on this page are estimates from the sources cited, current as of September 2026. Each is confirmed in writing in your free feasibility study. Licensed and insured; documentation available on request.