March 11, 2025

On March 10, the Ministry of Housing announced that it will not be fully implementing the adaptable housing requirements in the 2024 BC Building Code (BCBC) on March 10, 2025. 

“After consulting the home-building community and recognizing current economic uncertainty, such as the recent U.S. tariff threat, the adaptable-dwelling requirements will be introduced in a phased approach, starting at 20% of units in large residential buildings, as opposed to the previously proposed 100%.”  However, the Province is still proceeding with implementation of the seismic standards as of March 10, 2025. 

UDI has been involved in ongoing discussions with the Province for well over a year. We advocated for a delay in the implementation of the adaptability and seismic provisions, as well as extended in-stream protection – both of which were previously granted. 

UDI is supportive of the Province’s decision to proceed with a smaller percentage of adaptable units considering ongoing economic uncertainty. This approach will allow the Province and building industry to better understand the full cost and space impacts of adaptable units in practice. However, UDI remains very concerned with the impact of the new seismic standards, especially in the Victoria area of the Capital Regional District (CRD). 

The Province noted it “...will be exploring how mass timber can help provide cost-effective design solutions to meet the seismic requirements and will focus on specific solutions for the CRD.”  UDI will continue to work through its Building Codes Issues Committee on this, and further consultations planned by the Province with both the accessibility community and industry in 2026 “as the ministry reviews the model 2025 National Code requirements.” 

The Space and Cost Impact Report completed by a Provincially-contracted consultant was also released. Some key takeaways from the report include:

• Related to the costing estimates "...The final construction designs in a real building could be larger and more expensive;” and
• The impact to buildings in Victoria with poor soil classification will not only impact the cost, but also the space used by the structure, and “...conventional shearwalls are no longer adequate to handle the [seismic] forces and require new solutions that are not normally used in structural design.” 

Additional resources:

• 2024 BCBC Adaptable Dwelling Unit Illustrative Design Guide
• BSSB Bulletin - Application of Adaptable Dwelling Unit Provisions

Staff from the Building and Safety Standards Branch will be joining UDI on April 15, 2025 for an informational webinar to discuss the new adaptability and seismic requirements, as well as the further consultations planned. 

September 24, 2024

As noted in previous UDI correspondence, on September 13, the Province announced it would be granting in-stream protections for housing projects that are underway in relation to new 2024 BC Building Code (BCBC) changes for adaptable dwellings, and earthquake designs. 

The full announcement from the Ministry of Housing can be read here, as well as the Ministerial Order. 

Strengthened In-Stream Protections 

“Projects are identified as underway or in-stream if: 

• A development-permit application and drawings have been submitted to a local authority in relation to the building before March 8, 2024; or
• A rezoning application and drawings have been submitted to a local authority in relation to the building before March 8, 2024; or
• Drawings have been prepared for the building by a registered professional before March 8, 2024. 

In all cases, a building permit application must be submitted before March 8, 2027.”  

The main “test” is whether a project has drawings (meeting the definition in the Information Bulletin) for the building by a registered professional that are dated before March 8, 2024. This would need to be verified by drawings submitted in a Development Permit or Rezoning Application before the March date – or providing a date-stamped drawing. The secondary “test” would be submitting a BP application for the building before March 8, 2027. 

For those projects that do not meet the tests outlined above, they will need to have a Building Permit application before March 10, 2025, to obtain in-stream protection. All others would need to comply with the 2024 BCBC, including the earthquake-design and adaptable-dwelling provisions. 

More information on the details of which projects are considered in-stream is provided in the Information Bulletin by the Building and Safety Standards Branch (BSSB). 

Request for Proposals 

The BSSB issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) on August 8, which closed for submissions on September 6. The Ministry is seeking a final report that will include an analysis of the space and cost impacts associated with the new seismic and adaptable dwelling requirements in the BCBC scheduled to come into effect in March 2025. This includes a comparative analysis between the 2024 and 2018 requirements, and the cost impacts of the new adaptable dwelling requirements versus the costs to renovate units after occupancy. The results of this work will be used to inform the development of an Illustrated Design Guide (which is also part of the RFP) with floor plans to illustrate efficient and compliant space designs. 

As per the RFP, a final seismic and adaptable space study report is due no later than January 13, 2025, with the Illustrated Design Guide for seismic and adaptable requirements due no later than February 28, 2025. 

The BSSB advised UDI on September 17 that a successful proponent has been selected for the RFP, and will be made public in the coming weeks. 

The full RFP can be reviewed here for more information. 

UDI will continue to engage with the BSSB, advocating for the development of offsets and mitigation measures to address the impact of the adaptability changes, and will be participating in consultations for the seismic and adaptable space study, as well as the development of the Illustrated Design Guide for seismic and adaptable requirements. If needed, UDI will be providing additional recommendations after the reports are completed. 

May 21, 2024

On May 7th, the Ministry of Housing hosted a session with stakeholders from a variety of sectors on the adaptability and earthquake design changes to the BC Building Code slated for implementation on March 10, 2025.

UDI was well-represented and many members from across the province participated, asking questions and raising concerns about the impact of the provisions.

UDI and our partners in the building sector have been engaging regularly with the Building and Safety Standards Branch on the changes and will continue to work with Ministry staff through technical working sessions to develop offsets and mitigation measures ahead of next year's implementation timeline.

May 7, 2024

As part of its work to adopt the 2024 edition of the BC Building Code in late 2023, the Ministry of Housing committed to engaging with interested parties throughout the housing and building community to further understand the impacts of provisions in the Code relating to adaptable dwelling units and earthquake mitigation measures.   

The Building and Safety Standards Branch is launching broad engagement to move this work forward, and as part of their preparation, they have heard from the community that guidance on how the adaptable dwelling units provisions work would be valuable and help towards successful implementation. The Branch is planning an engagement with the broad development community on May 7th with follow ups and targeted engagement and policy analysis on specific issues in the coming weeks, and a report back to the community in the summer with an overview of their actions. 

If you’d like to read more about UDI’s work to date on the 2024 BC Building Code changes, please read our recent Spotlight newsletter for details.  

To facilitate the conversation, the Building and Safety Standards Branch has developed a backgrounder and draft FAQ bulletin on the adaptable dwelling units provisions.  This FAQ bulletin is a draft and the branch welcomes comments on how the FAQ can be improved to support designers and builders in understanding how the Code is intended to work.  The branch also welcomes comments on the impacts of the codes and ways the impacts can be mitigated.     

Some key notes the draft FAQ bulletin clarifies: 

• Where adaptable dwelling unit provisions apply across building types, clarifying that not all dwelling units are required to be adaptable.  
• That clear space requirements in dwelling units are intended to be shared and overlapped, supporting efficient space utilization, and enhancing adaptability by reducing the movement required between tasks in a dwelling unit.  
• That the architectural drawings that demonstrate the potential adaptability of a dwelling unit can be different from the way that the unit is initially constructed and decorated, recognizing that renovations occur over the lifecycle of a unit.  This means that common features like kitchen islands and linen closets can be built into units, provided that architectural drawings demonstrate how a potential floor plan can be adaptable within the same space.  
• That not all bedrooms in a multi-bedroom unit need to be adaptable, and an adaptable bedroom does not need to be designed to accommodate two people, meaning that more efficient bedroom designs, including ones that use smaller beds, can be used.
• Kitchen requirements and underlines that plans that demonstrate compliance with the adaptable dwelling unit provisions need only show a potential adaptable floorplan – the initially constructed kitchen can be different, provided that the adaptable floorplan is achievable in the space if plumbing is provided at an appropriate height to allow a different height for sinks after renovations. Similar guidance is provided for adaptable bathrooms. 

Comments can be provided to the UDI policy team (policy@udi.org), or sent directly to BSSB.public.review@gov.bc.ca.