Edmonton multi-family: everything changes at the fourth unit

The half-duplex trap

Of 998 Edmonton closes labelled Duplex, 916 carry clean attached-single-dwelling signals and 552 say "half duplex" in the remarks outright. Median 1,424 sqft, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths — a house that shares a wall, bought by someone who will live in it. Only 9 met strict two-unit tests. Those labelled-Duplex closes traded at a median −12.4% against peer-matched detached homes (n_pairs 557; same area, size band, close quarter, build decade).

That is the price of sharing a wall, not an income-property discount. The cohort is overwhelmingly half-duplex.

What this means for your search

Three practical conclusions. If you want two to four doors on one title, the entire Edmonton resale pool was 36 buildings across a year and a half. You will not build a pipeline from listing alerts; that market moves through relationships and off-market conversations. If you want five or more, you have crossed into commercial. You need a commercial licensee, and the resale flow does not run through the residential feed. MLI Select's five-unit minimum sits on that same side of the line, which is a large part of why MLI Select deals in this city skew toward new construction rather than resale. If what you actually want is rental income attached to a property you can finance normally, the honest answer is the 862 houses with secondary suites — the largest rung on the ladder by a wide margin, and the one our estimate is built for.

Where we work

We work in the 1–4 unit range. For five units and up you want a commercial licensee, and we would rather say so than take the lead and figure it out afterward.