No app can price a specific lot. Here is the exact math, run with real Kelowna numbers, so you can work through your own return before your free feasibility study confirms it in writing.
Written by Serge, Founder, Kelowna Carriage Homes
A slider-based calculator makes a carriage home sound like a standardized product. It is not. Servicing distance to the main line, a lot’s slope, and whether you self-manage a rental or hire a property manager each move the numbers by tens of thousands of dollars. A generic tool would hand you a false sense of precision.
What follows instead is the arithmetic a lender or an appraiser actually uses, run against real Central Okanagan cost and rent figures. Work through it for your own address, then bring the result to your free feasibility study, where we confirm it in writing against your specific lot.
Every carriage home return comes down to four inputs. Move any one of them and the payback period moves with it.
The table below runs the math at both ends of the turnkey cost range, against the CMHC two-bedroom average rent, since most carriage homes built here are one- or two-bedroom units.
| Item | Low end: $350,000 build | High end: $550,000 build |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly rent (2-bed, CMHC 2025 Kelowna average) | $2,118 | $2,118 |
| Annual gross rent | $25,416 | $25,416 |
| Simple payback, paid in cash (build cost ÷ annual rent) | ≈13.8 years | ≈21.6 years |
| Est. monthly payment if fully financed (30-yr amortization, 4.95%) | ≈$1,868 | ≈$2,936 |
| Monthly cash flow if fully financed (rent minus payment, before reserve) | +$250 | −$818 |
The financed column assumes the full build cost is borrowed at once, with no cash down and no rent premium for the larger unit built at the high end of the range. Put equity in and both numbers move; build a larger unit and the rent line moves too. It also excludes the operating-cost estimate above, and it ignores that even in the negative-cash-flow scenario, part of that monthly payment is building your own equity rather than disappearing.
Simple payback, used above, answers one question: how many years of rent does it take to recover what you spent? It ignores financing and ongoing costs entirely, which makes it a rough starting point rather than a return you can bank on.
Cash-on-cash return is more useful once financing is involved. Divide your actual annual cash flow (rent, minus the mortgage or HELOC payment, minus operating costs) by the cash you actually put in, not the full build cost. A $45,000 down payment producing $2,000 a year in net cash flow is a 4.4% cash-on-cash return, on top of whatever the property appreciates and whatever principal you pay down along the way.
Neither number captures resale value. A legal carriage home generally adds more to a property’s resale price than it cost to build, though by how much depends on the buyer pool in your specific neighbourhood at the time you sell.
Central Okanagan rental vacancy rose to 6.4% in 2025, up from 3.8% the year before, the highest vacancy rate of any major Canadian metro that year (CMHC). Softer demand means more time to lease and more room for tenants to negotiate; it does not mean a well-located two-bedroom sits empty, but it is a reason to be conservative with your income assumption rather than optimistic.
How you finance the build restricts how you can use it. The CMHC-insured refinance route requires a minimum 90-day tenancy, so nightly rentals are not an option if you use it; that forces the long-term-rental assumption used above. If you are weighing nightly income instead, read the short-term vs. long-term rental strategy guide before you pick a financing route.
The BC $40,000 Secondary Suite Incentive Program closed to new applications on March 30, 2025; it no longer improves anyone’s numbers unless an approval was already in hand. A CleanBC rebate of up to roughly $5,500 for a ductless heat pump, stackable with a BC Hydro rebate up to $2,000, is still available and trims both the build cost and the ongoing utility line.
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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.