What will it actually cost to build?
Not a per-square-foot guess. These figures are calibrated against My Home Builders' own completed builds. The stack includes trades, design and permits, management, contingency, escalation, and the cost of construction financing. Change anything, as many times as you like, and watch the number move.
1 · The house
Enter finished areas as they appear on the plan. Not every space costs the same to build, so each one is counted at its real share of a finished floor — a garage is not a kitchen.
2 · Level of finish
Each level changes the cost of the trades. Watch the construction cost per ft² in the panel move as you switch between them.
3 · Specify the build
Choose only what you actually want. Each item carries its own real cost — nothing is bundled into a vague "luxury" tier.
Structure & envelope
Energy
Choose the full energy package — geothermal and heat-recovery ventilation. Pair it with the ICF structure, triple glazing and envelope upgrade above for the deepest cut.
Mechanical
Interior
4 · Land & financing
The lot
Servicing
1 · The building
Five questions. Everything else — floor areas, common space, the financing structure — is worked out from these.
How many units?
What kind of suite?
Laundry in each unit?
Servicing
2 · Energy performance
This is the lever that matters. Building better than code costs more up front, but it earns CMHC MLI Select points — and points buy a longer amortization, a lower insurance premium and up to 95% financing. That is usually worth far more than the extra build cost.
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3 · Upgrades
A short list. The affordability commitment is the usual companion to energy points — it costs rent but it is what gets most small projects to the 70-point tier.
Energy performance and geothermal/ICF also lower the building's running costs, and they earn MLI Select points — which is what improves the financing terms shown.
What sits behind the number
| Two yardsticks, one cost. Weighted area converts every space to its share of a finished floor — a finished basement counts as half, a garage about a third, a roofed balcony a quarter, an indoor pool room 1.25×. Total area is simply everything added up. | Area |
| Priced on weighted area. Construction is a single rate per weighted square foot, so the shell scales directly with size. The fixed pieces — development charges, utilities and legal — do not change with size, so on larger builds they spread thinner and the all-in cost per foot eases. The land cost does not move at all. | Scale |
| Trades plus your upgrades. Professional fees — design, engineering, survey and insurance — add 8%, or 10% on a luxury or pool build, and a builder’s-risk line adds 0.5%. Construction management is charged on that base, never on the development charges, permits, parkland and utility connections, which pass through at cost. A 10–15% contingency is normal on a build of this kind; we carry 8%, with 3.5% escalation, within a 2.5–4.5% band. Construction-financing carry moves with the rate you choose (default 8%); the lender fee is 1% to a bank or credit union up to 9%, and 3% to a private lender or broker above it. The carry applies a 0.744 drawdown factor — the loan is drawn progressively as the build proceeds rather than held in full — so it scales with both the rate and the project cost. | Stack |
| HST. Totals are shown before HST — the way builders quote and contract. HST applies on top of the construction figure, though much of it may be recoverable on a new home: owner-occupied builds can qualify for the federal GST/HST New Housing Rebate, and a purpose-built rental of four or more self-contained units can qualify for the Purpose-Built Rental Housing (PBRH) rebate, mirrored by Ontario. Conditions apply, and the amount recovered varies. HST is shown in full. Some of it may come back — check with our HST rebate calculator. | Tax |
| CMHC MLI Select. Five units minimum. 50 / 70 / 100 points buy a 40 / 45 / 50-year amortization and a 10 / 20 / 30% premium discount at up to 95% of cost. Energy earns 20, 35 or 50 points for building 20%, 25% or 40% better than code; it caps at 50, so most projects add an affordability commitment for the other 50. CMHC also applies a minimum 1.10 debt-service coverage test against your actual rents — this page does not model that test. | Financing |
| Cash you bring. The mortgage covers the loan-to-cost percentage the points earn (up to 95% under CMHC, 80% for a financed home, 75% conventional). The rest is your cash — before land transfer tax, legal and lender fees, which vary and are not included. For rental, the CMHC premium is added to the loan, not to your cash. | Cash |
| Energy. On a rental, better energy performance and geothermal/ICF earn MLI Select points, which is what improves the financing terms shown. | Energy |
Planning-grade range, not a quotation — roughly ±10% on a conventional site. Ground conditions, servicing and design complexity move real numbers; CMHC program terms and premium rates change and eligibility is decided by CMHC and your lender, not by this page. Not financial, mortgage or tax advice. Rates current as of August 2026.
This estimate assumes you supply the permit-ready drawings and the building permit. If you would like us to take that on, we enter a design-build agreement and charge a flat $24,000 for design and permit — $12,000 of which is refunded to you if you award us the construction phase.
Want this checked by a person?
We will run your numbers against our live cost basis and send back a written estimate with the assumptions spelled out — no obligation, no sales call unless you ask for one.