Ask why a hobby farm in Ardmore or a flat half acre in Deep Cove still feels insulated from the multiplex pressure reshaping Saanich and Victoria, and the answer arrives fast: North Saanich sits outside the Capital Regional District's urban containment boundary, so it was never required to pre-zone single-family lots for triplexes or fourplexes under Bill 44. That answer is correct. It is also not the law currently changing what a North Saanich lot can become.
The law doing that work is the Housing Supply Act. North Saanich's first-year results under it led the province to appoint an outside adviser, and that adviser's recommendations are now informing a zoning bylaw update that went to council this past Monday.
The Law Everyone Cites Isn't the One Moving
The Bill 44 exemption is real. North Saanich's own housing page confirms the district falls outside the urban containment boundary, and that the prevalence of Agricultural Land Reserve land, the absence of municipal sewer across most of the district, and lot sizes well above typical urban parcels reinforce why the multiplex mandate never applied here.
But a separate piece of legislation, the Housing Supply Act, set North Saanich a Housing Target Order effective August 1, 2024: 419 net new homes by July 31, 2029. Year 1 carried a target of 60 units. The district delivered 12, a 20 percent completion rate, according to the province's own accounting of the district's progress report.
That number only means something next to the peer group it was measured against.
| Municipality | Year 1 delivered | Year 1 target | Completion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Town of View Royal | 260 | 99 | 263% |
| City of Colwood | 397 | 178 | 223% |
| City of Langley | 533 | 251 | 212% |
| City of New Westminster | 1,175 | 656 | 179% |
| City of Mission | 314 | 211 | 149% |
| City of West Kelowna | 331 | 289 | 115% |
| City of Prince George | 284 | 273 | 104% |
| District of North Cowichan | 141 | 191 | 74% |
| City of Port Coquitlam | 191 | 343 | 56% |
| District of North Saanich | 12 | 60 | 20% |
Every other municipality in that cohort either hit or came close to its number. North Saanich was the only one to fall this far short, and it was the only one in the group the ministry flagged for an appointed adviser.
What the Province's Own Reviewer Found
The independent adviser appointed by the province began work January 19, 2026, and delivered a final report on March 31 with 19 recommendations. The ministry shared it with the district on June 16. Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs Christine Boyle framed the intervention as routine partnership work, saying the province is "working with municipalities as key partners to get more homes built, faster." Mayor Peter Jones's response was cooperative rather than combative, describing the district as ready to work through the province's recommendations.
The report itself is more specific than the press statements. It points to a blanket parking requirement of 2.0 stalls per unit for multi-family development, a ratio the reviewers found "significantly exceeds adjacent municipalities." It also notes the Manager of Planning position was vacant for part of the review period, leaving junior planners without the structured oversight a housing target this size would normally require. The report's conclusion is blunt about what comes next: the district's Year 2 target of 208 units is "unlikely to be achievable under the status quo."
The Recommendations Already Sitting in a Draft Bylaw
The adviser's list of fixes reads like a blueprint for the zoning bylaw the district was already drafting. Among the recommendations:
- Reduce minimum lot sizes to 925 square metres in R1 zones
- Remove panhandle lot restrictions that currently block certain subdivisions
- Permit duplexes and townhouses in some residential zones where only single-family homes are allowed today
- Strip residential designation from Victoria Airport Authority lands
- Cut the multi-family parking ratio to a maximum of 1.5 stalls per unit
- Delegate minor variance approvals to planning staff by the end of 2026
None of this required Bill 44 to move. It's happening through the district's own Zoning Bylaw No. 1606 update, first presented to council on April 27, 2026. Information sessions had been scheduled for September 15 but were postponed, with the update pushed instead to a council meeting on September 21, according to the district's Connect North Saanich engagement page. That meeting already happened. The draft bylaw carrying these changes is now in front of council, a few days before this piece was written.
Why This Doesn't Touch the ALR Estates the Same Way
A buyer comparing a flat building lot in Deep Cove to a twelve-acre estate two roads over in the same neighbourhood is comparing two different regulatory futures, even after the bylaw rewrite lands.
Roughly 30 percent of North Saanich's land base sits inside the Agricultural Land Reserve, according to the district's own strategic plan, and that designation answers to the provincial Agricultural Land Commission rather than to municipal zoning. On ALR parcels, the commission generally permits one secondary suite within the principal residence and, on parcels over 0.4 hectares in specific rural zones, a guest cottage that must independently comply with ALC rules. Smaller minimum lot sizes and duplex allowances in an R1 zone don't reach a property that's ALR designated. The zoning bylaw rewrite can change what's buildable on a suburban-style half acre without changing anything for the acreage a mile away.
The Number Nobody's Agreed On
Not everyone in the district accepts that 419 is the right number to be building toward. A local analysis published by the Keep it North Saanich group in June 2026 pointed to Statistics Canada census data showing the district's population grew 8.8 percent between 2016 and 2021, from 11,249 to 12,235 residents, while occupied dwellings grew 8.3 percent over the same window, from 4,626 to 5,010. Those two figures moved in close to lockstep. The group's math puts the province's implied pace, roughly 84 homes a year, only about 9 percent above the district's own recent historical rate of 77.
A letter published in Victoria News in August 2026 pressed the same question from a different angle, noting that the 419-unit figure represents 75 percent of a Provincial Housing Needs Estimate whose underlying calculation for North Saanich specifically hasn't been made public, and asking a fair question about the endpoint: if 419 market-rate homes get built and affordability hasn't moved, has the target actually done its job.
Neither argument disputes that the district fell short of its Year 1 number. Both are asking whether the number itself was built for this particular piece of land.
What This Means If You're Comparing North Saanich to Somewhere Else
None of this is happening in a market that's standing still. A snapshot from mid-September 2026 showed 76 active listings across the district with a median list price of $2,147,500 and an average of 57 days on market. Separate data from around the same period showed asking prices up roughly 4 percent year over year with inventory down about 16 percent, a tightening rather than a loosening market. BC Assessment's January 2026 notices, reflecting values as of July 1, 2025, showed typical single-family assessments in North Saanich rising in the 1 to 2 percent range, in line with what assessors called a broadly calm year across Greater Victoria.
That's the price backdrop the zoning rewrite is landing on. If the council-approved bylaw carries through the smaller lot minimums, the duplex allowances, and the lighter parking requirements the adviser recommended, the change in buildable potential falls on standard residential lots first, while ALR estates keep operating under a separate set of rules regardless of what the municipal bylaw says. A buyer weighing a North Saanich acreage against, say, a comparable lot in Central Saanich or Sidney should be asking which zone a specific parcel sits in and whether it's inside the ALR, not whether the district is exempt from Bill 44. The exemption headline answers a question that isn't currently deciding anything on the ground.
The zoning bylaw that came out of this process, not the multiplex law North Saanich never had to follow, is the document worth reading before making an offer on land here.
If you're comparing a specific North Saanich property against what else Greater Victoria has to offer, Coastal Living Collective can walk you through what a parcel's zoning and ALR status actually mean for its future, not just its listing price.
