A heritage property looks like a deal until you are 15 months into a permit process and still waiting.

We bought a property that fell under heritage designation. The bones were good, the location was right, the numbers made sense — on paper. What we did not fully account for was that heritage properties do not operate on a normal renovation timeline. They operate on a city timeline. And those are very different things.

The permit application process stretched to 18 months. Here is what that actually looked like.

Round one with the heritage committee

Our designer submitted drawings that showed the original windows being replaced — they were rotten, structurally compromised, needed to go. The heritage committee came back and asked for written documentation proving the windows were actually rotten.

We had already submitted drawings describing them as rotten. The committee wanted proof beyond the drawings.

So the designer had to go back, source written evidence, resubmit. Weeks lost on something that felt like it should have been part of the first submission. In hindsight, it should have been. Anticipate every question the committee might ask and pre-answer it before they ask it. Do not assume a drawing speaks for itself.

The driveway that changed everything

The city required a 7.5% slope on the driveway for drainage compliance. That single requirement — one number — cascaded through almost every drawing we had.

The driveway had to be extended. That changed the site plan. Which changed the landscaping plan. Which changed the tree protection zones. Which triggered another review by the grading engineer. Every trade that had already drawn their portion had to revise.

One comment from one reviewer restarted months of work. That is the heritage permit experience in one paragraph.

What I would tell anyone considering a heritage property

Do not budget in months. Budget in seasons.

If your plan depends on breaking ground in spring, design to be permit-ready the previous autumn — and even then, build in a buffer. Every round of feedback adds weeks. Every revision touches multiple drawings. Every new reviewer brings a new concern.

The property we bought was worth it. But the timeline cost us real money in holding costs, carrying costs, in the gap between what we projected and what actually happened.

Heritage designation does not mean do not buy. It means buy knowing that the city is a silent partner in your project — and they do not move fast.

By the time our permit was finally in hand, we had revised the drawings multiple times, responded to heritage committee feedback across three separate rounds, navigated a grading engineer who kept surfacing new issues, and watched a straightforward renovation become an 18-month exercise in patience.

The lesson is not to avoid heritage properties. Some of the best opportunities I have seen have come with a heritage designation attached. The lesson is to price the time into your model the same way you price the renovation costs — honestly, with a real contingency, not wishful thinking.

If you are looking at a heritage property right now, add six months to whatever timeline your designer gives you. Then add another three. If you finish early, great. If you do not, you planned for it.