Best Toronto Neighbourhoods for Multiplex Development, Ranked by the Numbers

Nine Toronto wards can legally build a sixplex right now, as long as it is a detached building. Everywhere else, a houseplex on an ordinary residential lot stops at four units as-of-right: all of Etobicoke, almost all of York, all of North York, and every Scarborough ward but one. Five or more units can still be as-of-right in some places outside the nine wards: RM-zoned lots without a low 'u' limit, and lots abutting a major street, where townhouses and small apartment buildings are permitted. For an ordinary lot, the ward is the single fact, not curb appeal or a transit score, that separates the multiplex neighbourhoods that pencil in 2026 from the ones that only sound like they do. Score any Toronto street against four numbers: as-of-right unit count, land cost per buildable unit, achievable rent per unit type, and Committee of Adjustment exposure. Run those four and the shortlist gets short fast.

The four numbers that decide whether a multiplex pencils

As-of-right unit count. Since May 2023, Toronto has permitted a multiplex (a residential building with two, three, or four units) as-of-right on most residential lots citywide, in the R, RD, RS, RM, and RT zone categories, with no rezoning or public meeting required if the building meets the standard height, setback, and lot-coverage rules for that zone. On June 25 to 26, 2025, council went further and approved up to six units as-of-right in a detached building, but only in nine wards: Parkdale-High Park (4), Davenport (9), Spadina-Fort York (10), University-Rosedale (11), Toronto-St. Paul's (12), Toronto Centre (13), Toronto-Danforth (14), Beaches-East York (19), and Scarborough North (23). Everywhere else, a fifth or sixth unit in a houseplex on an ordinary lot needs a minor variance or a rezoning, unless the lot is RM-zoned without a low 'u' limit or abuts a major street, where small apartment buildings are permitted. A citywide six-unit permission has not been adopted. Don't buy a lot on the assumption that six units are coming everywhere.

Land cost per buildable unit. This is the number that turns a legal unit count into a return, and it's also the number no public source tracks at the neighbourhood level. Neither TRREB nor the City publishes land price per buildable unit broken out by named neighbourhood; it has to be built from live lot comparables at the time you're underwriting, not pulled from a report. Treat any per-neighbourhood price signal, including the read in the table below, as a starting point to verify against current comps, not a number to buy against.

Two cost lines sit underneath that land price and are worth knowing before you compare offers. Toronto has required no resident parking for a house or houseplex since February 3, 2022 (By-law 89-2022), and that includes the fifth and sixth units of a sixplex (By-law 648-2025). On development charges, By-law 845-2025, passed at council's July 23 to 24, 2025 meeting, sets the charge to zero for the second through sixth unit in a project of up to six units. The first unit still pays. That closed an earlier gap where a fifth or sixth unit was still charged. The same by-law waives the parkland cash-in-lieu fee for the second through sixth unit, and neither waiver carries an end date. Storeys separately cites historical per-unit development charge rates that had climbed to roughly $52,676 for a one-bedroom and $80,690 for a two-bedroom by mid-2024, one industry estimate, illustrative of what the waiver is worth rather than the live schedule.

Achievable rent per unit type. CMHC's Rental Market Report data tables put the Toronto CMA's average purpose-built apartment rent at approximately $1,917 a month across all unit types. The same year's CMHC release flagged the vacancy rate climbing to roughly 3.0%, the highest since the pandemic, as new purpose-built supply came online and rent growth slowed. That figure is city-wide; CMHC doesn't publish it broken out by named neighbourhood, so a Junction bachelor and a Long Branch two-bedroom both need their own rent check, not a share of the CMA average.

Committee of Adjustment exposure. Since the 2023 reforms, the multi-unit use itself doesn't need a hearing if it's within the as-of-right limit for that ward. What triggers a hearing is a numeric departure from Zoning By-law 569-2013: height, lot coverage, or a setback. The 2026 fee schedule lists $5,011.08 for a residential dwelling application with three units or fewer, $2,228.98 for additions and alterations, and $6,485.59 for other uses, which is the rate for a new building with four or more units; applying after work has started doubles the fee. Tighter, narrower, or oddly shaped lots are the ones most likely to need a variance, which adds both cost and calendar time.

Toronto neighbourhoods ranked for multiplex development today

Where the zoning map and the price map pull apart

Long Branch and New Toronto get pitched as multiplex plays because the lots are wide and the streets are quiet, but all of Etobicoke sits outside the nine wards council approved in June 2025. An ordinary lot there still tops out at four units in a houseplex as-of-right; a fifth or sixth unit needs a minor variance or a rezoning, not just a compliant envelope, unless the lot is RM-zoned without a low 'u' limit or abuts a major street. The same is true of the older post-war grid across most of Scarborough, every ward except Ward 23, and of the Willowdale-adjacent streets in North York. Sellers in all three areas sometimes price land as if a sixplex were already legal. It isn't, and underwriting a fifth or sixth unit that requires a variance or a rezoning is a different, slower, less certain deal than underwriting four units that are as-of-right today.

The neighbourhoods still pencilling at four-plus units

The nine wards that cleared six-unit permission in June 2025 are the obvious place to start, but they aren't uniformly priced. The East York lots in Wards 14 and 19 (Leaside and Thorncliffe, in Ward 15, are outside the six-unit area) tend to be wider than the downtown wards and carry less heritage overlay risk, which keeps both land cost and Committee of Adjustment exposure lower relative to the unit count on offer. Danforth and Riverdale-Leslieville carry the same six-unit permission but on narrower lots, which raises the odds of needing a variance for coverage or setback. Scarborough North is the newest entrant. The City's pilot analysis found that roughly 61% of residential lots in the ward, zoned RD, RS, RT, and RM, could fit at least a sixplex under the proposed framework, a meaningfully larger share of buildable stock than most of the other eight wards can claim.

How overlays knock a neighbourhood out even when the zoning says yes

Base zoning capacity is necessary, not sufficient. Three overlays override it regardless of what the unit count says. A Heritage Conservation District (designated under the Ontario Heritage Act) adds a Heritage Permit review for exterior alterations and new construction on top of ordinary zoning and building permit review; that can constrain a multiplex's massing, materials, or timeline even on a lot that zones for six units. Toronto's Tree Protection By-law requires a permit before injuring or removing any privately owned tree 30 centimetres (12") or greater in diameter, regardless of whether the proposed building is otherwise fully compliant; a mature tree in the wrong spot can shrink the buildable footprint. And within designated ravine and natural feature areas, Municipal Code Chapter 658 protects all trees and vegetation and restricts grading, filling, and construction regardless of a tree's size; removal permits are granted only in rare cases, and an approved removal comes with replacement planting, or a cash payment per tree where there is no room to replant. None of these show up on a zoning summary. All three show up on a site visit and an arborist report, and all three are why two lots with identical zoning can have very different real capacity.

A shortlist test to run before you commission a feasibility study

Run any candidate street through this before you spend money on a full study:

1. Confirm the ward and the current as-of-right cap, four or six units (six only in a detached building), directly against the City's ward list. Don't rely on last year's headline.
2. Pull the zone designation for the specific address and check height, setback, and lot coverage against Zoning By-law 569-2013 Chapter 10 and the Interactive Zoning By-Law Map. Multiplexes follow the same numeric rules as any other residential building in that zone; there's no separate, looser multiplex envelope.
3. Check for a Heritage Conservation District boundary, any private tree at or above 30 centimetres (12") in diameter, and any ravine or natural feature designation before assuming the full envelope is buildable.
4. Price the Committee of Adjustment scenario, not just the base case, against the 2026 fee schedule, and add calendar time to the project if a variance looks likely.
5. Pull a live rent comp and a live lot comp for that specific street. A city-wide CMHC average or a GTA-wide resale average tells you the market's direction, not what your unit mix will rent for or what the lot is actually worth.

Watch one thing that could move your ward's cap mid-project: in June 2025 Council kept six-unit permissions to the nine wards, and another ward joins only if its councillor asks and Council approves.

Once a neighbourhood clears these four numbers, the remaining questions are project-specific: what a feasibility study on that exact lot shows, what the structure package costs to build, and how the capital stack gets financed. Those are the next pieces to read once you've landed on a street.