Millennials in Laneway Houses: Ep.1Fiona, her husband, and their two daughters in Burnaby

Hey, remember moving out? We're moving back in.

So say the young folks in our laneway homes. Most of Smallworks laneway houses are built for multigenerational living. Aging parents, adult kids, grandkids, and pets all sharing one property to make housing work.

A culturally longstanding way of living is becoming new again. So much so that we need to spotlight these lived experiences in our new series, “Millennials in Laneway Houses,” which explores how rising housing costs are reshaping family life in Vancouver. Through personal interviews and home tours, the series highlights the realities, tradeoffs, win-wins, and emotional dynamics behind this growing housing model.

The system is broken so we broke it back. You're welcome.

—Smallworks

Hi. I'm Fiona, and this is my Smallworks laneway house.

After my husband and I got married, we lived in Vancouver for a little bit, and then after the birth of our first daughter, we moved to England for a few years, and then our second daughter was born there, and we've just returned. We've been living in this laneway house at my parents’ backyard for about six weeks now.

My parents built this laneway house for us to live in and potentially for them to age into if their split level home becomes less livable for them. In the meantime, my family and I are really enjoying it.

Prior to living here, my husband and I had lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Vancouver. We knew that we didn’t want to raise a family there.

We just weren't sure of a way of returning to Vancouver with the housing market the way that it is. My parents—as a way to encourage us that we really could build a life here—were pursuing ideas of laneway homes. When they approached us with that idea, we were all on board.

When we were in Vancouver, we saw a lot of laneway homes. We used to do a lot of cycling, so you come across a lot of them. But at the time, they weren't allowed in Burnaby. Once Burnaby allowed laneway homes, my parents really jumped on that and thought this would be a great thing for our family.

I think the proximity to the outdoors just means we can really live a life that we want to live. It's a very cyclable neighbourhood so we're hoping to do lots of cycling with our girls.

As a mom to two young girls, proximity to family is really helpful when I just need a moment to myself, and that's completely available because Nana and Papa just live across the lawn.

Our daughter would often have breakfast with us in the morning and then wander on over and have a second breakfast over at Nana and Papa's. I think it's a real joy for us to be a part of my parents' lives, but also for my children to be so present in their lives as well. 

We were just really surprised at the size of laneway homes that we were able to get in Burnaby.

When my parents proposed the idea of building a laneway home, I was thinking, okay, I'm already a bit of a minimalist, we could live in a smaller home. But when we got to see the floor plan and when it was framed and we could walk in... wow.

When our friends have come to visit, they’ve been really surprised at how big it is. No one’s experience with a laneway house has been a reflection of the size of this.

I think ours is the only laneway house on the street right now. It might have been a novel concept to some people who haven't been following along with laneway homes in Burnaby.

But lots of our neighbours are in a similar situation, where their children are more my age, and now looking for a place to live in the Lower Mainland, looking to have somewhere more long term. And so quite a few of the other neighbours have expressed, oh, that would be really great to have our kids living in our backyards. 

I think this home represents a true home. Our first true home where we don't have plans to leave, or where we're only thinking we're here for a certain number of years. This is a place that we can live in and grow in, and not something we're just putting up with for the meantime.

— Fiona in her Smallworks laneway house in Burnaby, February 2026