About the data

Where the numbers come from

• Building permits: City of Toronto, Building Permits – Active Permits. We use Small Residential Projects issued in the last 12 months (5,704 permits).
• Trade licences: City of Toronto, Business Licences and Permits, for the licensed renovators listed in each area.
• Postal area boundaries: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census forward sortation areas (Open Government Licence – Canada).
• Roads: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Photos: Wikimedia Commons, credited on each page.

How it is calculated

• Typical cost is the median construction cost declared on the permit application. Owners often declare less than the final bill, and work that needs no permit (most kitchens and bathrooms) is not included.
• Permit wait is the median number of days from application to issue, including time spent revising plans.
• Neighbourhoods are grouped by the first three characters of the postal code. Street names are shown, never house numbers.
• Groups with fewer than 5 priced permits are left out rather than shown with misleading numbers.

Key numbers to quote

• 5,704 small residential building permits were issued in Toronto in the last 12 months; the typical declared cost was $50k.
• Half of those permits were issued within 18 days of the application (wait times by job and area).
• 877 permits created a new garden, laneway or second suite.
• Garden suite & laneway house cost: typical declared cost $250k across 604 permits (details)
• Home renovation cost: typical declared cost $35k across 1,074 permits (details)
• Home addition cost: typical declared cost $100k across 356 permits (details)
• Basement apartment cost: typical declared cost $40k across 273 permits (details)
• Garage cost: typical declared cost $25k across 211 permits (details)
• Deck cost: typical declared cost $20k across 171 permits (details)
• Underpinning cost: typical declared cost $50k across 90 permits (details)
• Porch cost: typical declared cost $10k across 70 permits (details)
• Basement walkout cost: typical declared cost $12k across 57 permits (details)

Figures update daily; the date on each page shows when it was last rebuilt.

Use or cite this data

You are welcome to quote these numbers in articles, reports and posts. Please credit and link The Renovation Ledger and the City of Toronto open data it is built on. A ready-made link:

<a href="https://renovationledger.ca/renovations/">Toronto renovation data: The Renovation Ledger</a>

Found a mistake? The method above is deliberately simple so anyone can check it against the City's data.