Live Salt Lake City listings, filtered
Homes with an ADU or casita in Salt Lake City.
Salt Lake City listings with an accessory dwelling unit, whether that is a basement apartment, a detached casita, or an attached mother-in-law suite, fed straight from the MLS and sorted newest first, with a clear read on the city's accessory-unit pathway and what you have to verify before you write an offer.
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Newest first
The newest ADU and casita listings.
Fed straight from the local MLS and filtered to homes that note an accessory dwelling unit, whether that is a basement apartment, a detached casita, or an attached mother-in-law suite: new Salt Lake City listings appear here as they list, and sold homes drop off. The read on what makes one legal here is just below.
No ADU or casita listings to show right now. Salt Lake City's deep, near-universal basements pair with a citywide accessory-unit ordinance, so a basement apartment is the common form here, most often near the University of Utah where the layout has long been in demand, with a detached casita or an attached suite turning up on the larger bench lots. Open the map search to run this filter live, or browse every Salt Lake City listing. Prefer a shortlist? Tell me what you are after.
Buying here
Confirm permitted before you count on it.
Salt Lake City legalized accessory units citywide, but a second kitchen and a separate entrance do not by themselves make an ADU or casita legal; the permit, egress, and parking have to check out for that address. Tell me what setup you are after, and I will have the Salt Lake City-area partner agent I work with pull the permit history on any home you flag.
Selling here
Own a Salt Lake City home with a documented ADU or casita?
Buyers on this page want a second living space with the paperwork to back it up, permitted and conforming with the city. List it with the Salt Lake City-area partner agent I connect you with and put it in front of that exact search.
Listing information comes from the local MLS and is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
The local read
What an accessory dwelling really means in Salt Lake City.
An accessory dwelling is a property feature, not a promise. On a Salt Lake City listing it means a secondary living space that can function on its own: a second kitchen, its own bathroom, a separate exterior entrance, and sometimes a separate utility meter. The words move around. A basement apartment is a lower level built out that way, a casita is usually a detached unit set apart from the house, and a mother-in-law suite is usually an attached apartment on the main or upper floor. In Salt Lake City the basement apartment is by far the dominant form, since the pre-war housing stock already carries the deep basements, but a casita or an attached suite does turn up on the larger lots higher on the bench. The search shows up here for two honest reasons, multigenerational living under one roof and a permitted accessory suite where the unit is legal, and both turn on the same homework, which is whether the space is actually conforming with the City.
Salt Lake City is unusual ground for this search, in a good way. Two facts stack up. First, basements are near-universal here, because the valley frost line is deep and the foundation goes down anyway, so the cold-climate full basement is simply the regional norm across the older neighborhoods, which is exactly the stock that makes a basement apartment the common form. Second, the City legalized accessory dwelling units citywide back in 2018, and since 2023 an ADU has been a permitted use in any residential zone with administrative approval, meaning no public hearing for a code-compliant unit. A basement apartment, a detached casita, and an attached mother-in-law suite are all recognized forms of that same accessory unit. That combination, deep basement stock plus a real legal pathway, is why this is a more straightforward search in Salt Lake City than in many Utah cities.
Here is the part that matters more than the photos. A finished basement, a converted room, or a small structure out back is not the same as the unit being legal. A second kitchen and an outside door do not make a unit conforming on their own, and a great many existing basement apartments in older Salt Lake City housing were finished over the decades without permits or were built long before today's rules. That is not a reason to walk away, but it is the reason to verify rather than assume. The questions that decide everything are whether the unit is permitted and conforming with Salt Lake City, whether it has its own legal egress, meaning a code-sized window well or door out of every sleeping room, and whether the required off-street parking is there. Note too that a legal accessory unit cannot be run as a short-term rental under the city's rules.
Treat any income angle with the same caution. I will not quote you a rent number or a payment number on a page like this, because what a unit could do depends on its legal status, the specific space, and rules that change, and a non-conforming unit cannot be counted on at all. What I can do is point you at the right stock. The pre-war neighborhoods of the central and east side carry the deepest finished-basement stock, so the single-story page and the no-HOA page are useful next stops, and the bigger floor plans on the two-story page sometimes carry the tallest lower levels. If you only want the extra below-grade square footage and not a second kitchen, the homes with a basement page is the wider search, a different intent than this one. Earlier in the process than show me listings? Start with the Salt Lake City guide, and when a home below reads right, that is the moment to reach out.
What counts as an accessory dwelling
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The form it takes: in Salt Lake City most of these are basement apartments, since the deep pre-war basement stock keeps that conversion common. A detached casita or an attached mother-in-law suite is rarer and more workable on the larger lots higher on the bench, so read the listing for where the space actually sits.
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Second kitchen: a full or kitchenette setup is the core marker. A finished basement with no kitchen is just finished space, not a separate unit, so read the listing for the actual layout.
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Separate entrance: the second front door of the page title. A private exterior entry, often a walk-down or a side door, is what makes the space usable on its own rather than a through-the-house extension.
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Separate egress: every sleeping room below grade needs a code-sized window well or a door to the outside. This is a safety item and a legality item at once, and it is the first thing to confirm in person.
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Permitted as an ADU: Salt Lake City legalized accessory units citywide, but the pathway is address-specific. A separate meter or split HVAC is a convenience, not proof of legality, so note it but verify the permit, not the wiring.
The local map
Where the accessory dwellings actually are.
Homes with a second living space turn up across Salt Lake City, but the forms concentrate in a few patterns, and the basement apartment is by far the dominant one. The grid lets you place each pattern from its street numbers. Here is where to look, and the due-diligence note attached to each.
Around the University of Utah
The east-side blocks near the University and Foothill have carried demand for a separate lower-level suite as long as the campus has been there, so this is one of the more common places to find a basement set up as its own space. It is also where verifying the permit and the egress matters most, because plenty of those units were finished over the years before the current rules. Frame the search by the property, not by who might live in it.
The Avenues and Capitol Hill
The hillside blocks just north and northeast of downtown hold some of the city's oldest houses, surveyed from the 1850s, and many sit over deep full basements on tight lots. A separate entrance is often a walk-down off the slope. Two cautions stack here: confirm the unit is permitted, and remember these streets fall inside local historic districts where exterior changes need design review.
Liberty Wells and the central east side
The brick-bungalow blocks south of Liberty Park, most built between about 1910 and 1935, are full-basement houses by default, and a good share have a finished lower level built out as a basement apartment. The 9th and 9th and 15th and 15th nodes nearby anchor the walkable central east side. A bungalow basement can be on the lower side for ceiling height, so stand in it before you fall for the floor plan.
Bonneville Hills and the bench
The single-family and ranch-style stock several miles east of downtown, up toward Foothill Drive, often sits on sloped lots where the lower level can open to grade. A daylight or walkout basement is the ideal canvas for a separate suite that lives like its own floor rather than a dark cellar, and the larger lots up here occasionally leave room for a detached casita too. Confirm the egress windows on every bedroom below grade.
Sugar House and Wasatch Hollow
The walkable southeast side mixes pre-war houses with newer infill, and the older homes here carry full basements like the rest of the central city. A built-out lower level near the Sugar House core or the Wasatch Hollow Preserve pairs a separate space with parks and the S-Line streetcar nearby. Newer infill is more likely to have been finished with permits, but you still verify.
The west side near the Jordan River
Rose Park, Glendale, and Poplar Grove are the more attainable detached neighborhoods, mostly post-war, on the flatter ground toward the Jordan River and its Parkway Trail. Plenty of these homes have full basements that could carry a conforming accessory unit. As everywhere in the city, the legal-versus-existing question is the one that decides it.
Before you tour: what to actually check
Is it permitted: ask the listing agent for the permit history and confirm the unit's status with Salt Lake City. The city's ADU pathway is real, but it is address-specific, and a second kitchen and a side door do not make a unit legal on their own.
Egress on every bedroom: each sleeping room below grade needs a code-sized egress window and well, or a door to the outside. Look at the actual window wells, not just the listing photos.
Conforming vs. existing: many older basement apartments are non-conforming, finished before today's rules or without permits. Understand exactly what you are buying and what can and cannot be relied on.
Parking and use rules: a legal accessory unit adds one off-street parking space and cannot be run as a short-term rental, so confirm the parking is there and the intended use is allowed for that address.
Historic-district review: in the Avenues, Capitol Hill, Yalecrest, and the other local historic districts, exterior work and additions need a certificate of appropriateness, so check the overlay before counting on a new private entrance.
Era, ceiling height, and systems: an older basement can be low, so stand in it. On any older-core home, date the roof, furnace, electrical panel, and sewer lateral, and confirm the second kitchen's wiring and gas were done to code and inspected.
Want a real ADU or casita without the guesswork?
Tell me your budget, the part of Salt Lake City you like, whether you want a basement apartment, an attached suite, or a detached casita, and whether you need a fully permitted, conforming accessory unit or are open to an existing space you would verify and possibly bring up to code. I will connect you with a trusted Salt Lake City-area partner agent for the on-the-ground work and stay on the file for the homework and the financing, with straight answers about which lower levels are legal suites and which are just finished basements with a door.
Selling a Salt Lake City home with an ADU, casita, or basement apartment? The buyers reading this page want exactly that. List it with the Salt Lake City-area partner agent I connect you with, and your home gets featured across MovingUtah, on the pages they are already reading.
Quick answers
ADU and casita shopping, answered.
It is a secondary living space that can function on its own, and listings use several words for it. A basement apartment is a lower level built out with a second kitchen, its own bathroom, and a separate exterior entrance, a casita is usually a detached unit set apart from the main house, and a mother-in-law suite is usually an attached apartment on the main or upper level. In Salt Lake City the basement apartment is by far the most common form, since the pre-war housing stock already has the deep basements, but a detached casita or an attached suite does turn up on the larger lots higher on the bench. All of these are property features describing the space, nothing more. The big thing to know is that a second kitchen and an outside door do not make a unit legal on their own, so the real work is confirming whether it is permitted and conforming with Salt Lake City.
Salt Lake City has one of the more open paths in the state. The city legalized accessory dwelling units citywide in 2018, and since 2023 an ADU has been a permitted use in any residential zone with administrative approval, so a code-compliant unit does not need a public hearing. That said, the pathway is address-specific. An existing basement apartment, casita, or attached suite still has to be permitted and conforming, and many older ones were finished without permits or built before today's rules, so they are non-conforming. Confirm the permit history, the unit's status, the egress, and the parking with the City before you rely on it, and verify the current code at slc.gov since rules change. I will help line up those checks.
Most often around the University of Utah and across the pre-war central and east side, the Avenues, Capitol Hill, Liberty Wells, and the bench neighborhoods like Bonneville Hills, where deep full basements are the norm and a basement apartment is the common form. A detached casita or an attached suite is more workable on the larger lots higher on the bench. The west-side neighborhoods near the Jordan River, such as Rose Park and Glendale, carry full basements too. A sloped or walkout lot can let the lower level open to grade and live like its own floor. The live listings above are the honest count on any given week.
Only where the unit is legal, and that is the whole point of the verification. A permitted, conforming accessory unit is a different thing from a non-conforming space that happens to have a kitchen, the city's rules do not allow a legal accessory unit to be run as a short-term rental, and the rules can change, so this is a question to confirm with Salt Lake City for the specific property, not to assume from the listing. I will not put a rent figure on a page like this, because it depends entirely on the unit's legal status and the specifics, but I can connect you with a Salt Lake City-area partner agent who will get you straight answers on what the city allows.
Egress is a legal, code-sized way out of every below-grade sleeping room, usually an egress window with a window well sized for a person to climb out, or a door to the outside. It is both a safety requirement and a piece of what makes a basement bedroom or apartment count as legal living space. It matters most on the basement apartments that make up most of this search, and it is the first thing to confirm in person, because a room marketed as a bedroom downstairs is not really one without it. We check the actual window wells, not just the photos.
Tell me the budget, the part of town, and whether you need a fully permitted, conforming suite or are open to an existing space to verify, and I will connect you with a Salt Lake City-area partner agent and flag matching listings as they go live. Pair that with a pre-approval so you can move when the right separate-suite home lists, since these are a narrow slice and they do not sit long.