division&build / tear-down&build

[Andrew Han]

Hi, this is my first time posting here. I own a ~5500 sqft lot zoned for LR1 with a 80 year old SFH on it around Northgate. The house is currently a rental in good shape with okay cash flow. I want to explore the options of building townhomes on the lot and get a bigger return.

Right now I can think of two plans: 

1. tear down the house and build 4 townhomes on it.

2. keep the old house, divide the lot up and build 2 townhomes on the extra lot. 

My question is that:

1. what is the construction costs nowadays for the above 2 options. I am leaning toward a more hands off approach.

2. Suppose if I pick one of the option, how to get the process started? 

Thank you all!