GROUND Cost Index · trailing 24 months · updated Oct 2026

Restaurant fit-out cost — Toronto & GTA

Computed from 852 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.

$80Kmedian declared permit value
$33K–$235Kmiddle 50% of projects (P25–P75)
$100/SFmedian declared permit value per SF
Distribution

Declared permit value

PercentileDeclared value
P25 — smaller projects$33K
Median$80K
P75 — larger projects$235K
Largest in window$75.0M

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

Per square foot

Declared permit value per SF

PercentileDeclared $/SF
P25$55
Median$100
P75$194

652 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 594 $54 $96 $181
5–10K SF 32 $76 $148 $238
10–25K SF 19 $91 $157 $443
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 →

GROUND services · Toronto & GTA

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More benchmarks

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