Live Sandy listings, filtered
Homes with an ADU or casita in Sandy.
Sandy 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 zoning and permit questions that decide what one can legally do here.
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- ADU, casita, or mother-in-law
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- Sandy, UT
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Want it narrower? Tell me your exact spec.
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 Sandy listings appear here as they list, and sold homes drop off. The read on what makes one legal is just below.
No ADU or casita listings to show right now. Sandy's accessory-dwelling search leans on the same deep valley-floor basements that are standard across the city, most often in the older grid around Historic Sandy and Crescent, with the larger foothill lots above Little Cottonwood Road occasionally allowing a detached casita instead of a basement conversion. Open the map search to run this filter live, or browse every Sandy listing. Prefer a shortlist? Tell me what you are after.
Buying here
Sort permitted from existing before you tour.
A second kitchen, a private entrance, or a detached casita does not make an accessory unit legal on its own; what matters is whether the space is permitted with Sandy City and whether every sleeping room has real egress. Tell me what setup you need and I will have the Sandy-area partner agent I work with pull the permit history on any home you flag.
Selling here
Own a Sandy home with a documented ADU, casita, or basement apartment?
Buyers on this page want a secondary living space with the paperwork to back it up, permits and egress included, not just a finished basement with a kitchen. List it with the Sandy-area partner agent I connect you with and it goes in front of exactly that 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 Sandy.
An accessory dwelling is a property feature, not a promise. On a Sandy 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 Sandy the search runs deep 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 permitted with Sandy City.
Sandy is reasonable ground for this search, and the form it takes here is overwhelmingly the basement apartment. The Salt Lake Valley frost line is deep, so foundations go down and finished basements are the regional norm, and on the sloped bench many of those basements are walkout or daylight levels that open to the yard. The city's older valley-floor core, the postwar grid around Historic Sandy and Crescent and the established streets off State Street, carries a deep stock of finished basements that already double the living space. Adding a second kitchen and a private entrance to that kind of full basement is exactly the conversion these listings describe. Climbing the bench, the larger foothill lots above Little Cottonwood Road, Pepperwood and Quail Hollow among them, occasionally have room for a true detached casita instead, where a second kitchen and a real bedroom fit more easily than in a converted lower level.
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 accessory units in older Utah housing were finished over the years without permits or were built before today's rules. What is allowed on a given property depends on that parcel's zoning, so two homes a block apart can carry different answers. That is not a reason to walk away, but it is the reason to verify rather than assume. The two questions that decide everything are whether the unit is permitted with Sandy City and whether it has its own legal egress, meaning a code-sized window well or door out of every sleeping room.
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 earn 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. If a true separate suite is the goal, the older-core ramblers are the natural hunting ground, so the single-story page and the no-HOA page are useful next stops, and the bigger two-story floor plans on the two-story page sometimes carry the deepest, tallest lower levels. If you only want the extra 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 Sandy 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 Sandy most of these are basement apartments, since the deep older stock makes that conversion common. Detached casitas and attached mother-in-law suites are rarer, more workable on the larger foothill lots above Little Cottonwood Road, 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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Separate utilities: some units have their own gas or electric meter, or at least split HVAC. It is a convenience, not proof of legality, so note it but do not read it as a permit.
The local map
Where the accessory dwellings actually are.
Homes with a second living space turn up across Sandy, but the forms concentrate in a few patterns, and the basement apartment is by far the dominant one. Here is where to look, with the due-diligence note attached to each.
Historic Sandy and the old grid
The postwar core around the Historic Sandy TRAX station sits over the deepest stock of finished basements in the city, on the most mature lots. This is the most likely place to find a real separate suite, and also the most likely place to find one that was finished without a permit, so it is the area where verification matters most.
Crescent and split-entry floor plans
Crescent and the older subdivisions carry a lot of split-entries, and that layout lends itself to a lower level with its own grade-level door. The split design can put a private entrance just a half-flight down, which is why so many conversions started here. Confirm the egress windows on the bedrooms below.
Established streets off State Street
The built-out neighborhoods along the State Street corridor and the 9000 South and 9400 South arterials hold a lot of the city's mid-century-into-1980s housing with full basements, some finished as separate living space. Errand-close and transit-adjacent, but date the systems and confirm the permits.
Granite, Hidden Valley and the foothill bench
Climbing east into Granite and Hidden Valley, the larger lots and many custom homes can carry tall, comfortable basements, and the slope here gives a real shot at a walkout or daylight lower level for a more comfortable suite. A newer or custom build is more likely to have been finished with permits, but you still verify it parcel by parcel, because zoning answers shift as you climb.
Pepperwood, Quail Hollow and the foothill custom enclaves
Above Little Cottonwood Road, the half-acre-plus custom and estate lots carry Sandy's best odds of a true detached casita, with the room a converted basement rarely has. Several of these lots back to the Dimple Dell ravine, so treat the grading and drainage on that side of the property the same way you would on any lot bordering the ravine, regardless of how far up the bench you are.
Near the four TRAX Blue Line stations
Sandy has four in-city Blue Line stations, and a home with a separate lower unit within a walk of one pairs a flexible floor plan with a one-seat ride toward downtown SLC. Station-adjacent demand is steady, so these move when they list.
Before you tour: what to actually check
Is it permitted: ask the listing agent for the permit history and confirm the unit's status and the parcel's zoning with Sandy City, whether the space is a basement apartment, a casita, or an attached suite. 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 accessory units 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.
Separate systems: check whether the kitchen, HVAC, and any meter are genuinely separate, and whether the wiring and gas work for the second kitchen were done to code and inspected.
Ceiling height and light: an older basement can be low. Stand in it. A tall, daylight, or walkout lower level lives very differently from a short, fully below-grade basement, and the Sandy bench gives you more shots at a walkout.
Lot, water, and the rest: Sandy runs its own culinary water system, so the provider is consistent, but check the bill. On a bench or foothill lot, add the driveway grade and any retaining walls to the list, and on any older-core home, date the roof, furnace, electrical panel, and sewer lateral.
Want a real ADU or casita without the guesswork?
Tell me your budget, the part of Sandy you like, whether you want a basement apartment, an attached suite, or a detached casita, and whether you need a fully permitted, conforming unit or are open to an existing space you would verify and possibly bring up to code. I will connect you with a trusted Sandy-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 Sandy home with a basement apartment, a casita, or an attached accessory suite? The buyers reading this page want exactly that. List it with the Sandy-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 the listings use several words for it. In Sandy the most common form by far is a basement apartment, a lower level built out with a second kitchen, its own bathroom, and a separate exterior entrance. A casita usually means a detached unit set apart from the main house, rare on the older valley-floor lots but more workable on the larger foothill parcels above Little Cottonwood Road, and a mother-in-law suite usually means an attached accessory apartment on the main or upper level. All of them are property features describing the space, nothing more. The big thing to know in Sandy is that a second kitchen and an outside door do not make a unit legal on their own, so the real work is confirming the parcel's zoning and whether the unit is permitted and conforming with Sandy City.
Some are and some are not, which is exactly why you verify rather than assume. A unit has to be permitted with Sandy City to be treated as a separate dwelling, and what is allowed depends on the parcel's zoning, so two homes a block apart can carry different answers. Many existing units in older homes were finished over the years without permits or were built before today's rules, so they are non-conforming. That is not a dealbreaker by itself, but you need to know which one you are buying. Confirm the zoning, the permit history, the unit's status, and the egress independently before you rely on it, and I will help line up those checks.
Most often in the older valley-floor core, the postwar grid around Historic Sandy and Crescent and the established streets off State Street, which sit over the city's deepest stock of finished basements. Climbing the bench into Granite and Hidden Valley you find taller custom basements with more room for a private entrance, and the foothill custom enclaves above Little Cottonwood Road, Pepperwood and Quail Hollow, carry the largest lots and the best odds of a true detached casita. 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, what is allowed depends on the parcel's zoning, and the rules around rentals can change, so this is a question to confirm with Sandy 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 the Sandy-area partner agent I work with, 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 units 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 Sandy you like, and whether you need a fully permitted suite or are open to an existing space to verify, and I will connect you with the Sandy-area partner agent I work with and flag matching listings as they go live. Pair that with a conversation about financing so you can move when the right separate-suite home lists, since these are a narrow slice and they do not sit long.