Containers used for Edmonton laneway homes perfect rental investment

They’re called laneway homes.  You could call them laneway runaway-hit homes because they’re becoming so popular in urban areas where densification is the order of the day. A separate dwelling off the back alley is a new concept for Edmonton homeowners and one local company is capitalizing on the momentum by renovating shipping containers for that very purpose.

Recent changes to Edmonton bylaws mean laneway housing is legal as well as trendy.  A metal shipping container is just the right side and provides instant infrastructure for a suite in the back yard.  The concept of using a shipping container isn’t novel – it’s being done in Vancouver.  However, a local Edmonton contractor, who has been building infill homes for several years, had the foresight to contact a company in Kelowna to bring shipping container laneway homes to Edmonton.

A year ago Daniel Engelman  of Honomobo Homes connected with Big Steel Box Structures, an outfit that modifies steel shipping containers for a variety of purposes.  It was just about the time that the City of Edmonton amended the bylaws to allow for laneway homes, a.k.a. garden homes, garage suites or carriage homes.

Engleman had been contemplating how to efficiently and affordably construct small homes in this manner and when the bylaws changed in Edmonton, it was the perfect time to put a plan into action.

The new bylaw made provision for the lot size required to install a laneway home and also relaxed the height and location restrictions so that people can either put a home on the back end of their lot or built a suite on top of their garage.This bylaw amendment was obviously a popular move by the City of Edmonton, as applications for laneway home permits shot up by 100%. A laneway home or garden suite is not titled property.  It is an additional structure on one property but allows the property owner to either have rental income or to house relatives.

There are six floor plans available from Engleman’s company. Some of the suites are as small as 200 square feet or as large as 1,200 square  feet. One of his suites, installed, can be as little as $99,000.  His most popular model is 528 square feet which is a mash up of three different containers.  It has a separate bedroom, an open concept kitchen with island and full height windows along one wall.  The cost of installing a shipping container laneway home is not significantly less than constructing one from scratch.  The true savings is in time.  A shipping container suite can be built in 10 weeks and a crew would likely take about a month to install in someone’s back yard.

Engleman secured factory space outside of the city in Stony Plain and is retrofitting big shipping containers using a local workforce.

An example of what space inside a shipping container looks like is on display in Churchill Square.  Engelman said the first day it was on display in June, there were 400 people lined up to see it.

He says half of this customers want a laneway suite as an investment. For example, if you add the cost of a shipping container suite to your mortgage, it would likely be $500 a month.  The rental opportunity could be $1,000 a month.  The other half of his customers want a nearby home for older parents or for adult children.