For the press.

Writing about ADUs, California housing law or the fire rebuild? Here are the numbers, quotes, photos and logos, plus a direct line to our founder.

hello@buildoly.com

Rendering of a Buildoly Model 1 backyard home — Model 1

About Buildoly

Building a home usually means hundreds of decisions passed between architects, engineers, suppliers, the city, builders and subcontractors, with no one owning the whole thing. Every home starts from scratch, which is a big reason housing costs so much and takes so long to build. Buildoly brings all of it into one vertically integrated process and offers the backyard home like a product. The Los Angeles company designed a set of building blocks, so each home can be shaped around a family, planned down to the last nail before work starts, and built on site at a price the owner knows before signing. Founded by Jeff Cheung while he was at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Buildoly builds across Southern California and has two designs pre-approved by the City of Los Angeles.

By the numbers

105
homes being delivered by Buildoly across California
20+
cities where Buildoly has permitted homes
24,000+
people have asked us about building a backyard home since 2022

Buildoly projects across Southern California, updated as new ones are signed. Open the full map

From Buildoly's records. The map and the first number update as new projects are signed.

Jeff Cheung, founder and CEO of Buildoly

Meet the founder

I started Buildoly while I was at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Most homebuilders either build custom homes or sell a handful of fixed floor plans. Either way, a home is the sum of hundreds of decisions made by architects, engineers, material suppliers, the city, builders and subcontractors, with no one owning the whole thing. Every home is treated as a one-off, so each project starts from scratch and gets figured out on site, like building the plane while you fly it. That's a big part of why housing costs so much, takes so long and runs late.

We designed the building blocks to turn all of that into one vertically integrated process. We plan every home down to the last nail before anything starts, so we can offer it like a product, with a fixed price and timeline, while each one is still shaped around a family and built on their lot.

Most of the people who come to us are making room for someone they love. A mom who moved from Dallas to help raise her granddaughter. A young couple expecting their first baby, moving into the backyard because rent is so high.

Starting January 1, a single-family lot in California can add two backyard homes instead of one. I think a lot of the homes Los Angeles needs will be built this way, one backyard at a time.

Jeff Cheung is the founder and CEO of Buildoly. He started the company while earning his Master of Architecture (MArch II) at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and it was named a finalist in the Harvard Innovation Lab and President's Innovation Challenge.

Jeff Cheung, Founder and CEO
jeff@buildoly.com
linkedin.com/in/jeff-cheung

Headshots, free to use:

Portrait (JPG)Square (JPG)Wide (JPG)

Kitchen and living room inside a Buildoly backyard home

In Jeff's words

On who builds
“When we ask homeowners why they're building, most of them say family. A parent who needs to be closer, a kid who can't afford to live in the city they grew up in. The backyard is one of the few places left in Southern California where you can still add a home affordably.”
On the new laws
“The fee rules have quietly decided the size of a lot of California backyard homes. Our two-bedroom is 749 square feet for exactly that reason. Starting January 1, families can build the size they actually need.”

Jeff Cheung, founder and CEO, Buildoly

Fact sheet

Headquarters: 915 Wilshire Blvd #700, Los Angeles, CA 90017
Founded: 2022
Service area: Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego and the Inland Empire
Models: Model S: studio, 1 bath, 325 sq ft, from $165,000
Model 1: 1 bed, 1 bath, 497 sq ft, from $195,000
Model 2: 2 bed, 1-2 bath, 749 sq ft, from $270,000
Model 3: 3 bed, 2 bath, 996 sq ft, from $360,000
LA Standard Plans: Pre-approved by the City of Los Angeles (LADBS): ADU84, ADU85
License: California general contractor, CSLB License #1134744
Google rating: 4.9 from 28 reviews. Read them or see them on Google

Kitchen island in a Buildoly Model 2 — Model 2

Story ideas

Three homes on one lot
Starting January 1, 2027, AB 956 lets a single-family lot add two detached backyard homes instead of one, so a house can become three homes without tearing anything down. The state says California needs 2.5 million new homes by 2030. What it could mean for Los Angeles, one backyard at a time. Read Jeff's explainer
The 749 square foot home
About 3 in 10 Buildoly homes are exactly 749 sq ft, one foot under the line where impact fees apply to the whole unit. SB 1117 removes that cliff on January 1, 2027. What changes for homeowners, and what doesn't. Read the announcement
Two years after the Eaton fire
After the Eaton fire, Altadena homeowners started asking about backyard homes in numbers we hadn't seen. Buildoly finished an ADU there in July 2026, has another under construction and signed a third in November.

Photos, video and logos

We can help with interviews, numbers from our projects, photos and video, and a visit to a finished Buildoly home at one of our open houses.

Download all photos and logos (ZIP, 14 MB)Logo, black (PNG)Logo, white (PNG)

The ZIP has 20 high-resolution photos of Model 1 and Model 2, a team photo, Jeff's headshots and both logos. Click any photo above for the full-size file. Free to use in news coverage of Buildoly; please credit Buildoly.