GROUND Cost Index · trailing 24 months · updated Oct 2026

Secondary suites cost — Toronto & GTA

Computed from 639 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.

$47Kmedian declared permit value
$25K–$80Kmiddle 50% of projects (P25–P75)
$63/SFmedian declared permit value per SF
Distribution

Declared permit value

PercentileDeclared value
P25 — smaller projects$25K
Median$47K
P75 — larger projects$80K
Largest in window$7.7M

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

Per square foot

Declared permit value per SF

PercentileDeclared $/SF
P25$40
Median$63
P75$117

402 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 384 $40 $60 $114
5–10K SF 16 $92 $132 $158
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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