What construction actually gets declared at.
Value distributions per project category, computed from GROUND's own permit corpus — medians and quartiles, never averages, so one outlier can't move a benchmark.
| Category | Projects | P25 | Median | P75 | Median $/SF | $/SF IQR | w/ area |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residential addition & renovation | 4,866 | $20K | $50K | $190K | $139 | $67–$257 | 2,427 |
| Single detached & new houses | 1,133 | $500K | $900K | $1,200K | $190 | $122–$263 | 1,089 |
| Office fit-out | 1,031 | $90K | $250K | $845K | $118 | $60–$241 | 817 |
| Underpinning & basement lowering | 1,024 | $50K | $100K | $300K | $164 | $82–$283 | 624 |
| Laneway & garden suites | 987 | $100K | $250K | $420K | $217 | $126–$360 | 926 |
| Restaurant fit-out | 779 | $40K | $90K | $248K | $101 | $55–$191 | 614 |
| Multiplex (new) | 757 | $80K | $450K | $1,000K | $158 | $77–$248 | 626 |
| Retail fit-out | 575 | $50K | $102K | $400K | $93 | $55–$201 | 438 |
| Secondary suites | 574 | $25K | $50K | $80K | $66 | $41–$121 | 359 |
| Institutional alteration | 451 | $80K | $350K | $1,250K | $341 | $139–$737 | 203 |
| Industrial & warehouse alteration | 260 | $52K | $200K | $1,000K | $136 | $58–$293 | 131 |
| Medical & dental fit-out | 220 | $80K | $162K | $500K | $113 | $58–$232 | 189 |
| Commercial interior (other) | 40 | $50K | $195K | $500K | $117 | $58–$157 | 26 |
| New industrial building | 38 | $500K | $3,010K | $20,000K | $173 | $133–$245 | 32 |
| Demolition | 26 | $30K | $58K | $600K | $40 | $27–$96 | 18 |
Size changes the number
A 2,500 SF fit-out and a 50,000 SF fit-out don't share a benchmark. Where a category has enough sized comparables, GROUND splits its $/SF distribution by floor-area band.
| Category | Size band | Projects | P25 $/SF | Median $/SF | P75 $/SF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residential addition & renovation | < 5K SF | 2,340 | $66 | $139 | $258 |
| 5–10K SF | 65 | $85 | $145 | $232 | |
| 10–25K SF | 15 | $70 | $187 | $569 | |
| Single detached & new houses | < 5K SF | 647 | $123 | $200 | $282 |
| 5–10K SF | 393 | $126 | $170 | $223 | |
| 10–25K SF | 47 | $89 | $181 | $279 | |
| Laneway & garden suites | < 5K SF | 907 | $126 | $220 | $362 |
| 5–10K SF | 19 | $86 | $174 | $198 | |
| Office fit-out | < 5K SF | 535 | $55 | $111 | $232 |
| 5–10K SF | 117 | $64 | $108 | $182 | |
| 10–25K SF | 96 | $80 | $162 | $284 | |
| 25–50K SF | 36 | $46 | $187 | $314 | |
| 50–100K SF | 22 | $120 | $257 | $324 | |
| 100K+ SF | 11 | $53 | $174 | $324 | |
| Underpinning & basement lowering | < 5K SF | 604 | $82 | $164 | $289 |
| 5–10K SF | 19 | $83 | $116 | $228 | |
| Multiplex (new) | < 5K SF | 474 | $70 | $154 | $261 |
| 5–10K SF | 147 | $99 | $160 | $232 | |
| Restaurant fit-out | < 5K SF | 559 | $54 | $97 | $176 |
| 5–10K SF | 31 | $75 | $148 | $261 | |
| 10–25K SF | 16 | $112 | $171 | $443 | |
| Retail fit-out | < 5K SF | 351 | $51 | $93 | $201 |
| 5–10K SF | 48 | $68 | $99 | $179 | |
| 10–25K SF | 26 | $62 | $82 | $117 | |
| 25–50K SF | 9 | $78 | $113 | $245 | |
| Secondary suites | < 5K SF | 341 | $40 | $64 | $116 |
| 5–10K SF | 16 | $92 | $132 | $158 | |
| Institutional alteration | < 5K SF | 142 | $130 | $332 | $767 |
| 5–10K SF | 24 | $156 | $284 | $392 | |
| 10–25K SF | 12 | $101 | $342 | $606 | |
| 25–50K SF | 10 | $174 | $433 | $685 | |
| 50–100K SF | 8 | $458 | $622 | $1,056 | |
| Medical & dental fit-out | < 5K SF | 160 | $59 | $108 | $226 |
| 5–10K SF | 17 | $37 | $87 | $232 | |
| 10–25K SF | 11 | $66 | $189 | $414 | |
| Industrial & warehouse alteration | < 5K SF | 69 | $63 | $163 | $386 |
| 5–10K SF | 25 | $37 | $81 | $140 | |
| 10–25K SF | 20 | $109 | $143 | $211 | |
| 25–50K SF | 10 | $106 | $161 | $534 | |
| New industrial building | < 5K SF | 12 | $146 | $185 | $216 |
| 10–25K SF | 8 | $174 | $196 | $245 | |
| 100K+ SF | 8 | $95 | $107 | $665 |
Every number carries its evidence tier
| A+ | Actual subcontract award / bid tab | planned |
| A | Prime contract award | planned |
| B | Engineer estimate / tender result | planned |
| C | Declared permit value | live |
| D | Modeled from comparable projects | live |
Everything on this page today is tier C (declared permit values) or tier D (ranges modeled from C-tier comparables). Tiers A+/A/B arrive with award-record and bid-tab ingestion — actual contract prices, which will recalibrate these benchmarks upward where declared values understate hard cost.
Each asset class gets the unit that makes engineering sense
$/SF is only the right shape for buildings. GROUND's cost ontology assigns every asset class its native units — populated as trade-level award data accumulates, so a project eventually decomposes into system-level price ranges.
Total: $/SF
Excavation & shoring $/m³ · Concrete $/m³ · Reinforcing steel $/t · Structural steel $/t · Envelope & roofing $/m² · Interiors $/SF · Mechanical $/SF · Electrical $/SF
Total: $/m
Watermain & sewer $/m · Roads & paving $/m² · Earthworks $/m³
Total: $ per m³/day capacity
Structural concrete $/m³ · Formwork $/m² · Reinforcing steel $/t · Process piping $/m · Pumps & process equipment $/each · Electrical / I&C % of plant
What these numbers are — and aren't
Every figure is a declared construction value from a Toronto building permit (tier C), classified by GROUND's cost taxonomy over the trailing 24 months, minimum 8 comparables per category. $/SF uses the permit's declared gross floor area (all use classes summed), with implausible rates outside $20–$3,000/SF discarded. Declared values can understate actual hard cost — that is what the tier system is for. Coming next, in order of evidence quality: awarded public contract values (tiers A/A+) from municipal and CanadaBuys award records; index normalization to current-quarter pricing (StatCan BCPI); and unit rates ($/m, $/m³) for civil work, where $/SF is the wrong shape entirely. External industry guides are used as calibration references only — never republished as GROUND data.