Do you have to live on the property to have a secondary suite in Metro Vancouver?

The rules sit in different documents in each municipality, so read the table by its source column. "Not stated" means the page or section named does not address the point. It does not mean the municipality has no rule.

The City of Langley is the strict one

Section 2.4(c) of the City's new zoning bylaw, adopted March 9, 2026, sets six conditions. The registered owner must reside on the lot. The suite must comply fully with the B.C. Building Code, "shall not exceed a gross floor area of 100 m2", and shall not exceed 40% of the gross floor area of the building. It needs at least one off-street parking space beyond the two normally required for a single detached home. And it must be approved through a building permit and recorded in a secondary suites registry the City maintains.¹²

Both size limits apply at once. In a 200 m² house the 40% rule caps the suite at 80 m², below the 100 m² ceiling.

Burnaby: no owner rule in zoning, one in licensing

Burnaby's zoning bylaw, in force since July 1, 2026, lists its suite conditions in Part 6 section 3.1. The suite must be fully contained in the primary dwelling, one per primary dwelling, built to the B.C. Building Code, at least the minimum floor area, and kept on a single title with the main home. Boarding, most child care and home businesses with on-site clients are barred from a home with a suite.³ None of the conditions is about where the owner lives.

That is not the whole answer. The City's Secondary Suite Program page says to "obtain a business license if renting but not living on the property", and to file a supplementary utility fees declaration within 30 days of starting or stopping a rental. It warns of a $1,000 fine under the Waterworks Regulation Bylaw for renting an unregistered suite.⁴ The same page still lists the zones as "R1, A1, A2, A3 and RM6", a list from before the new bylaw, so use the bylaw for where suites are allowed.

On short-term rental, section 3.3 is specific. It is not permitted in a secondary suite. In the main home it is allowed only as a registered owner's principal residence, and only while the suite "is occupied and rented to a long-term tenant for a period of 30 consecutive days or more."³

Vancouver and the Township of Langley

Vancouver's suite page covers where suites are allowed and what makes one legal, and says nothing about owner occupancy or size. A suite not approved through the City's permitting process is not a legal dwelling unit and is not eligible for a short- or long-term rental licence.⁵ The City's how-to guide, a PDF we could not open, may carry dimensional rules; they are not on this page.

The Township of Langley's pages say suites are now permitted in duplexes and semi-detached homes as well as single-family homes, one per principal dwelling, under zoning amendments that took effect November 18, 2024. A building permit is required for every suite, and an Annual Secondary Suite Infrastructure Fee has been collected with property taxes since 2025.⁶⁷ Older Township and City of Langley suite guides that are still online give different, earlier rules; the pages and bylaws above are the current ones.

Before you rely on any row

A "Not stated" cell is the point to ask the municipality directly. Burnaby shows why: the owner-occupancy question is answered in its licensing, not its zoning, and the same may be true elsewhere. Vancouver is the obvious place to check next.