GROUND Cost Index · trailing 24 months · updated Aug 2026

Laneway & garden suites cost — Toronto & GTA

Computed from 984 classified Toronto building permits over the trailing 24 months — quartiles of declared permit values from the public record, never averages, vendor quotes or blog-post ranges.

$250Kmedian declared permit value
$100K–$420Kmiddle 50% of projects (P25–P75)
$218/SFmedian declared permit value per SF
Distribution

Declared permit value

PercentileDeclared value
P25 — smaller projects$100K
Median$250K
P75 — larger projects$420K
Largest in window$57.0M

984 comparables · declared values from Toronto building permits, trailing 24 months.

Per square foot

Declared permit value per SF

PercentileDeclared $/SF
P25$126
Median$218
P75$361

923 permits with credible declared gross floor area. The denominator is the permit's declared GFA (all use classes summed); rates outside $20–$3,000/SF are discarded.

By project size

Size changes the number

Size bandProjects Declared $/SF · P25MedianP75
< 5K SF 904 $126 $221 $364
5–10K SF 19 $86 $174 $198
Methodology

What these numbers are — and aren't

Every figure is a declared construction value from a Toronto building permit, classified by GROUND's cost taxonomy (minimum 8 comparables per published category) over the trailing 24 months. Declared values can understate actual hard cost — awarded-contract benchmarks (tiers A/A+) arrive with award ingestion and will recalibrate these numbers where declarations run low. Full tier system and every category: GROUND Cost Index →

More benchmarks

Residential addition & renovation · Single detached & new houses · Office fit-out · Underpinning & basement lowering · Restaurant fit-out · Multiplex (new) · Retail fit-out · Secondary suites · Institutional alteration · Industrial & warehouse alteration · Medical & dental fit-out · Commercial interior (other) · New industrial building · Demolition