“We built a four-bedroom laneway house in East York for $650,000”

In 2017, my wife, Christine, and I were renting a two-bedroom apartment near Victoria Park and Eglinton. She had just given birth to our first child, and we hoped to have at least one more. We liked our neighbourhood, but it dawned on us that our place was too cramped for the life we were starting to build.

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So we started looking for a house in or near the downtown core. My family moved to Toronto from the Philippines in 1996, when I was six, and my parents and I have lived in East York, near the DVP and St. Clair, ever since. That area also made sense for us work-wise. Christine and I are both nurses. At the time, I worked as a long-term care nurse in the York region, and she was at the tail end of her studies.

It didn’t take us long to realize that a detached family home in the city was way beyond our means. At most, we were willing to spend $750,000, but even old bungalows were selling for over a million. We started considering listings in Oshawa, Brantford and even Hamilton, but nothing caught our eye. The other option, building on a new lot, felt daunting—a friend of ours had a new house built, and it took more than two years to complete, plus her construction team went $100,000 over budget. So, in 2019, we moved into my parents’ basement. It was not much bigger than our original apartment, but it helped us save money while we kept an eye on the real estate market.

Then, in 2021, I found out that our neighbours were building a laneway house—they referred to it as a bachelor pad in their backyard. I felt inspired, so I started doing some research. Christine and I began to wonder if building a laneway home in my parents’ backyard might be our only way to live in Toronto while still being in a detached family home.

We asked my parents what they thought about the prospect of us living on their lot and joining their mortgage. Some people might not like the idea of living so close to family, but to us, it felt like a bonus. The only alternative they could think of was for them to retire in the Philippines and for us to take their house, but that would mean we’d hardly see them. They were just as thrilled as we were about the idea of a laneway home, especially since it would allow them to spend more time with us and our growing family—by then, we were pregnant with our second child.

So Christine and I reached out to Lanescape, an architecture firm that specializes in laneway homes. We asked if they would be able to build us a four-bedroom laneway house for $550,000. They came back saying that the budget would have to be $680,000. Well, we thought, that’s still a lot more affordable than any of the detached houses for sale.

We decided to move forward with it in 2023. Christine and I aren’t well-versed in construction, but we weighed in on design choices. We told them we wanted an open-concept living area with a spacious kitchen and a large island because we love to cook and bake. We also wanted four bedrooms—two upstairs and two downstairs—with a walk-in closet in the primary one, plus three bathrooms with showers but no bathtubs (they remind Christine of scary scenes in horror movies). We opted for a gold, black and brown colour palette with white walls and hardwood floors.

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Construction started in August. We checked in weekly to see our vision steadily coming to life. Everything was finished in just nine months, and the final product exceeded our wildest dreams: a 1,700-square-foot, four-bedroom custom family home right here in East York. In the end, it cost us roughly $650,000—$30,000 under budget. We used the extra money to buy an SUV for the family, and we even had some cash left over to landscape the yard.

We moved into the place in May of this year, and I’ve been pinching myself ever since. When our friends visit, they can’t believe we could afford a home like this without having to completely break the bank. Meanwhile, the kids feel like they are living large compared to our days in the basement—they’re mesmerized by the tall white walls. Christine and I love it too: we’re near family, in a community we know, and close to highways, bus routes, subway lines, shopping centres, restaurants and good schools.

The main perk, though, is that we have space indoors and out. We have ample room for cooking, a safe backyard for the kids to run around in, a front yard that’s long enough to park a family vehicle in and even a full room dedicated to toys. We’re expecting our third child in November, though, so the toy room will soon be converted into a nursery.

It feels like we found a loophole in the Toronto housing market. No matter how you look at it, this was the best option for us. We got our money’s worth and more. I see our family growing up in this house—I can’t imagine us leaving it, at least until the kids graduate high school. We have everything we need.