Construction
What a Toronto Multiplex Actually Costs to Build
TESA · July 4, 2026 · 6 min read
What a Toronto Multiplex Actually Costs to Build
Budget roughly $200 to $330 per square foot in hard construction costs for a Toronto multiplex, depending on building form and finish level, based on Altus Group's GTA benchmarks. On a typical fourplex of about 4,200 square feet, that works out to approximately $965,000 to $1,135,000 of hard cost before land, professional fees and taxes. The city-charge side is lighter than most owners expect: effective July 24, 2025, Toronto exempts units two through six in developments of up to six units from development charges (the per-unit fees the City levies on new housing), so a duplex through 6-plex on a single lot will usually pay no City of Toronto development charges at all. The breakdown below lets you benchmark your own lot against real dollar ranges.
Hard cost benchmarks by unit count
| Build | Illustrative floor area | Hard cost band (Altus 2025, GTA) | Approximate hard cost total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duplex | ~2,400 sq ft | $200 to $275 per sq ft (single-family and row bands) | $480,000 to $660,000 |
| Triplex | ~3,300 sq ft | $230 to $270 per sq ft (stacked townhouse band) | $760,000 to $890,000 |
| Fourplex | ~4,200 sq ft | $230 to $270 per sq ft (stacked townhouse band) | $965,000 to $1,135,000 |
| 6-plex | ~5,800 sq ft | $245 to $330 per sq ft (wood-framed apartment band) | $1,420,000 to $1,915,000 |
The floor areas above are illustrative assumptions for typical Toronto infill lots; your buildable area comes from your zoning envelope and your architect. The dollar ranges come from Altus Group's Canadian Cost Guide GTA tables and cover hard construction costs only. Land, professional fees, city charges, financing and taxes are all additional. Every figure here is approximate: a planning band, not a quote.
Where do these numbers come from?
Altus Group's Canadian Cost Guide is the standard industry benchmark for budgeting Toronto residential construction. The 2026 edition, released April 23, 2026, draws on more than 6,500 development projects and publishes hard cost data by asset class and city on a per-square-foot basis. There is no line in the guide labelled "Toronto fourplex", so we bracket multiplex product with its nearest analogues from the 2025 GTA tables. Row townhouses run roughly $205 to $265 per square foot and single-family homes $200 to $275. Three-storey stacked townhouses sit at $230 to $270, and wood-framed apartment buildings up to six storeys land at $245 to $330.
Finish level stretches those bands hard. Altus pegs the premium for high-quality finishes at up to $245 per square foot on top of base apartment rates, and its custom single-family band, roughly $520 to $1,130 per square foot, shows how far finish and complexity can push a residential build. A rental-grade 6-plex and a condo-grade 6-plex are two different budgets in the same shell.
How many units will zoning let you build?
Four units are permitted as-of-right in low-rise neighbourhoods citywide; as-of-right means no rezoning application, just a building permit that complies with the by-law. Since City Council's June 2025 decision, up to six units are permitted as-of-right in nine wards, the Toronto and East York district plus Ward 23 (Scarborough North), and other wards can opt in. A study on citywide sixplex permissions, covering up to six units and four storeys, is still underway. Check your ward before you assume a 6-plex.
What does the City of Toronto actually charge?
Development charges are the City fee everyone asks about first. For context, the non-rental schedule effective June 26, 2025 charges:
| Unit type (non-rental schedule) | DC per unit |
|---|---|
| Single or semi-detached | $137,846 |
| Row/townhouse unit, 2+ bedrooms | $113,938 |
| Apartment, 2+ bedrooms | $80,690 |
| Apartment, 1 bedroom or bachelor | $52,676 |
Multiplex builders mostly skip this table. In July 2025, Council adopted Mayor Olivia Chow's motion exempting all units in sixplexes from development charges and parkland dedication, expanding an earlier proposal that covered only the first four units. Effective July 24, 2025, the second through sixth units in developments of up to six units are exempt, so most duplexes through 6-plexes built on a single lot clear the City with no development charges owed.
Two more City moves matter for timing. Council removed the annual inflationary indexing of development charges for 2025 and 2026, freezing rates at the June 26, 2025 schedule. Then on June 23, 2026, the City announced it secured up to $1.5 billion over 10 years through the Canada-Ontario Partnership to Build, in exchange for committing to cut residential development charges by 40 to 60% between 2026 and 2029 depending on unit type, with the reductions maintained for at least three years. Posted rates are heading down; pull the current schedule before you lock a budget.
Parking is the quiet saving. Toronto removed most minimum automobile parking requirements for new development (adopted December 15, 2021, in force February 3, 2022), replacing minimums with maximums, so a duplex through fourplex is not required to provide any parking. Accessible parking requirements were retained and were refined for applications received after March 31, 2025. You can still build spots where the market wants them; the by-law just stops forcing you to.
Do you pay HST on a multiplex build?
If you build rental, plan the HST from day one, then plan to get most of it back. The enhanced purpose-built rental rebate returns 100% of the federal part of HST on qualifying new rental projects: at least four private apartment units, with at least 90% of residential units designated for long-term rental. Construction has to begin after September 13, 2023 and on or before December 31, 2030, and the project has to be substantially complete by December 31, 2035. Ontario mirrors it with a 100% rebate of the 8% provincial part. A qualifying 4-plex to 6-plex built as rental can effectively recover the full 13% HST that self-assessment would otherwise cost. Osler estimates the combined relief at roughly $65,000 per unit on a typical project; treat that as an illustration rather than a guarantee, since the actual amount scales with unit value at 13%. Note the threshold: a rental duplex or triplex sits below the four-unit minimum and does not qualify.
What moves the number up or down?
- Building form. Stacked, townhouse-style layouts price in the $230 to $270 band; a small apartment-style building with common circulation prices closer to $245 to $330. The same six units can land in different bands depending on how they stack.
- Finish tier. The up-to-$245-per-square-foot premium for high-quality finishes is the single biggest discretionary swing in the budget.
- The lot itself. When we underwrite multiplex sites at TESA, the spread between an easy lot and a hard one comes from below grade and at the property line: how much excavation the design needs, what shape the existing services are in, and how tight the access is for equipment. None of that shows up in a per-square-foot benchmark, which is why benchmarks screen deals and site work prices them.
- Escalation. Statistics Canada's Building Construction Price Index for Q1 2026 shows residential costs up 0.6% quarter-over-quarter and 2.8% year-over-year across the 15-CMA composite, with Toronto posting the smallest residential quarterly increase at 0.1%. Near-flat local escalation supports modest escalation allowances in a 2026 budget. Carry contingency anyway; escalation data describes the market, not your lot.
Running the screen on your own lot
Before you commission a feasibility study or talk to a lender, you can get a defensible first number in an afternoon. Take your realistic buildable area and multiply it by the band that matches your form and finish. Add land, and note that City development charges are close to zero for up to six units. If it is a rental hold with four or more units, model the HST rebate. Then stress the result against the current development charge schedule, because the committed 40 to 60% reductions will keep moving posted rates through 2029. This is the same screen we run at TESA before a full feasibility study: we underwrite the lot, price the structure package against these bands, and file against the fee schedules in force on the day the application goes in. If your screen survives those checks, the deal is worth the study.