Detached ADU · Nampa, ID
A 396 sq ft Waxwing studio built as a long-term rental in Nampa — the Essential finish keeps the basis low, the footprint sits under Nampa's ~500 sq ft ADU cap, and Canyon County's lack of a single countywide impact fee means lower entry cost than the same build in Ada County.
Sited a detached Waxwing as a purpose-built long-term rental on a suburban Nampa lot
Confirmed City of Nampa jurisdiction and the parcel's highway-district fee before quoting
Sized the 396 sq ft plan to fit comfortably inside Nampa's ~500 sq ft, one-bedroom ADU cap
Full kitchen with eating bar + full bath finished to a rentable standard
Separate metering and a private entry so the unit operates independently of the main house
Essential finish tier — durable, tenant-grade materials chosen to protect the cap rate
The challenge
Nampa rents sit below Boise, so an investor build only works if the basis comes down with them. The constraint that actually helps here is the size cap: Nampa limits accessory dwellings to roughly 500 square feet with a single bedroom, well below Boise's 900 sq ft ceiling. A larger plan isn't an option, and on a lower-rent lot it wouldn't pencil anyway — every extra square foot of build cost has to be earned back by rent that Nampa won't pay. The job was to hit a true rental spec at the lowest defensible cost, not to maximize size.
Our approach
The 396 sq ft Waxwing fits Nampa's ~500 sq ft cap with room to spare, while still living like a small one-bedroom — a defined sleeping zone and a real kitchen are what keep a long-term tenant, not raw square footage. We built it at Essential finish to hold the basis near the bottom of the turnkey range, and we leaned on two structural Canyon County advantages: there's no countywide highway district like Ada's ACHD, so there's no single across-the-board impact fee, and the parcel's actual transportation fee depends on the specific highway district — which we confirmed up front. Idaho SB 1354, effective July 1, 2026, drops owner-occupancy and most parking mandates for cities Nampa's size, which removes a constraint investors used to have to design around; we verify the city's current code on every project while the codes catch up.
The outcome
A roughly six-month contract-to-keys build delivered a rentable studio at the low end of the turnkey range. Because the basis stayed near the floor while the unit still rents like a small one-bedroom, the gross yield lands among the best of the six pre-approved plans relative to build cost — the lower lot and build costs in Canyon County are exactly what let a smaller, cheaper unit out-cap a larger one. For an investor, that ratio is the whole point.
"I run the numbers before I run anything else. The Waxwing came in at a basis my Boise options couldn't touch, it cleared Nampa's size rules without a fight, and it's leased to a long-term tenant. The cap rate is better than anything I own across the county line."
Cody R.
Nampa, Canyon County
City
Zoning, plans, and local fit for Nampa ADU builds.
Cost
Real 2026 pricing by plan and finish for this market.
Plan
A 396 sq ft studio with more breathing room — full living, kitchen, and bath in a thoughtfully laid-out single space.
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