The multiplex moment: How financing creates more housing choices.

What if a century-old Mount Pleasant home could lead Canada into a net-zero future?

This bold idea is driving Branden and Sylvie Kotyk as they take on the 1908 to Net-Zero project: transforming their heritage character house (pictured above) into Canada’s first net-zero multiplex conversion while preserving its unique features, creating new rental housing, and making room for a multi-generational future.

“We wanted to prove you don’t have to tear down existing homes to create new sustainable housing. You can take what’s there and make it work for more families,” says Branden, owner of Deep Green Developments.

In partnership with the Canadian Homebuilders’ Association, 1908 to Net-Zero launched a YouTube series highlighting key takeaways and lessons learned. Recently recognized with the CLFBC’s 2025 Award for Best Small Building, the project resonates beyond sustainability, inspiring people with the idea that multiplex construction, often considered daunting, can be done.

But building a multiplex is anything but simple: zoning rules are complex, quality contractors with relevant know-how are scarce, and financing remains the biggest roadblock.

“Traditional lenders don’t fully understand small-scale strata housing construction,” explains Ryan Mckinley, Senior Mortgage Development Manager at Vancity. “They tend to treat multiplexes as commercial projects, which means higher down payments and stricter lending criteria that end up making these builds financially unrealistic.”

To change that, Vancity introduced the Multiplex Construction Mortgage, the first of its kind in B.C., and possibly in Canada, designed for people who want to build up to four-unit homes on their properties. For Branden and Sylvie, that financing helped make the project possible.

“Vancity understood what we were trying to do from the start,” says Sylvie. “Their support has allowed us to save this century-old home by reconstructing it into a net-zero multiplex that makes space for families and is ready for the future.”

Breaking barriers to multiplex construction.

For years, restrictive zoning kept most neighbourhoods limited to just one kind of housing model: detached houses. That imbalance left too many people, especially lower- and middle-income earners, out of the housing market.  

Creating more gentle density through duplexes, triplexes, and strata infill dwellings is part of the fix. It broadens the housing mix in established neighbourhoods, eases pressure on prices, and helps people stay connected to their communities.

Recent provincial changes have accelerated this shift, opening the door to more housing on existing lots and, for the first time, allowing new units to be legally separated into strata titles with their own mortgages.

“This new legislation has been a gamechanger,” says Ryan. “Stratification creates entirely new homes that people can individually own, unlocking homeownership opportunities that were once out of reach.”

To meet that opportunity, Vancity’s Multiplex Construction Mortgage offers financing that works like construction lending but without the heavy requirements developers face.

“By making financing more straightforward and accessible, we hope to help residents build the type of small-scale housing our cities need—whether that’s multi-generational families, neighbours building equity together, or homeowners adding rental units to ease their mortgage costs,” says Wellington Holbrook, CEO of Vancity.