Renovation Cost GTA 2026: Full Home Renovation Prices in Toronto

Ask what a whole house renovation costs in the GTA and the honest first answer is another question: how much of the house are you replacing? A repaint with new floors and a down-to-the-studs rebuild of a 1920s semi share the same label, yet the first can come in under $50,000 and the second can pass $800,000. This guide prices 2026 renovations the way we price them on site, by scope, house type, line item and the permit path your municipality puts you on.

Quick answer: In 2026, a full home renovation in the GTA typically costs $150,000 to $300,000 for a mid-level renovation, $250,000 to $450,000 and up for a full gut with standard finishes, and $450,000 to more than $800,000 for a premium gut. By area, a full gut usually works out to $200 to $450 per square foot of finished space in construction cost, with design fees, a contingency and 13% HST on the taxable costs on top.

Key takeaways

• Scope sets the tier. Cosmetic work runs about $30,000 to $80,000. Once the kitchen, bathrooms and building systems are replaced together, projects start around $150,000.
• A full gut costs $200 to $450 per square foot of finished space. The age of the house, structural changes and finish level decide where you land in that band.
• Systems and finishes are most of the money. Plumbing, electrical and HVAC typically take 20 to 25% of a gut budget, and interior finishes 35 to 45%.
• Hold a 10 to 15% contingency, closer to 20% in pre-1940 houses, and apply 13% HST to the taxable labour, materials and services you expect to buy, contingency included. Municipal building permit fees are generally exempt.
• The permit path shapes the schedule. Toronto, North York and Etobicoke all go through Toronto Building, while Mississauga, Vaughan and Richmond Hill run their own processes. Conservation and heritage overlays add steps in all six.
• A fixed price with written allowances is the most dependable way to finish near the number you signed.

2026 renovation cost ranges by scope

The ranges are construction costs before HST for typical GTA houses of roughly 1,200 to 3,000 square feet. Design fees and contingency are separate, and both are broken down later in this guide.

Cosmetic refresh. This is surface work on a house whose structure and systems you intend to keep: refinished or new flooring, paint, interior doors and trim, new light fixtures on existing boxes, perhaps counters on sound cabinets. Most of it needs no building permit, although the Electrical Safety Authority (ESA) requires a notification of work to be filed before almost any electrical job starts, even a small one. The trap at this tier is spending $60,000 on finishes over 60-year-old wiring you'll have to open the walls for in three years.

Mid-level renovation. The floor plan mostly stays and the rooms that wear out get replaced: the kitchen, one or two bathrooms, flooring throughout, new lighting, and plumbing and electrical upgrades wherever walls are open anyway. This scope suits many newer suburban houses in Mississauga, Vaughan and Richmond Hill, where the wiring and framing are serviceable and the finishes are simply tired.

There's a reason the table jumps from $80,000 to $150,000. As soon as a project replaces a kitchen and bathrooms and opens walls, it picks up permit drawings, staged inspections, licensed plumbing, electrical and HVAC trades, and a sequenced schedule that has to be supervised every day. That overhead changes the economics, so very little whole-house work lands in between.

Full gut, standard finishes. Everything comes out to the studs and joists, and every system goes back new: supply and drain piping, wiring and panel, ductwork and equipment, insulation, drywall, kitchen, bathrooms, flooring and trim. "Standard" doesn't mean cheap. It means good semi-custom cabinetry, quartz, porcelain tile and quality hardwood rather than bespoke millwork and slab stone. Larger houses pass $450,000 quickly because so much of the cost scales with floor area.

Full gut, premium finishes. The same gut with custom cabinetry and millwork throughout, natural stone, panel-ready appliances, curbless showers, heated floors, a real lighting design and usually a structural move such as removing bearing walls or rebuilding the stair. Our Davenport Road renovation in Toronto shows the finish level: a stone-countered kitchen over checkerboard marble, stone-clad bathrooms with a frameless walk-in shower, and warm oak millwork balancing a light palette.

What "full gut" means on a real job site

On a gut we remove plaster or drywall from every wall and ceiling, take flooring down to the subfloor, and strip out the old piping, wiring and ductwork. That exposes the framing, and it's the moment you find out what the house really is: joists notched for a 1970s bathroom, a beam that was undersized when it went in, a previous owner's unpermitted basement wiring. Framing, plumbing rough-in and insulation are typically inspected by the municipality before anything is covered, and ESA inspects the electrical separately. Each inspection is a gate the next trade can't pass until it clears, which is why a gut takes longer than most owners expect.

Cost per square foot: using the $200 to $450 range properly

Per-square-foot figures are useful for a first budget and unreliable for comparing quotes. For a full gut we work from $200 to $450 per square foot of finished space, construction cost only.

Four rules keep the math honest:

• Count finished space, including the basement. A bungalow with 1,100 square feet upstairs and a 900-square-foot finished basement is a 2,000-square-foot renovation.
• Small houses cost more per square foot. A kitchen and two bathrooms cost about the same in a 1,400 or a 2,400-square-foot house, so the smaller house spreads them over less area.
• Basements are cheaper per square foot unless they need lowering. Underpinning adds roughly $70 to $150 per square foot, or about $35,000 to $85,000 on a typical basement.
• Two quotes at the same rate can be different jobs. Check whether each one includes designated substance testing, windows, the electrical service upgrade, new HVAC equipment and permit drawings.

Renovation cost by home type

Post-war bungalow

The one-storey brick bungalows built across North York, Etobicoke and Scarborough after the Second World War are a staple of GTA renovation work. Many have a modest main floor over a full basement, a kitchen closed off behind a bearing wall, one bathroom, and services that are either original or patched over seven decades.

A full gut of both levels commonly lands between $300,000 and $550,000 before HST, depending on size and finishes. The costs that catch owners are structural and below grade. Opening the kitchen to the living room usually means a new beam with posts carried down to new footings in the basement. Basement ceilings from this era are often too low for comfortable living space, so lowering the floor by underpinning or benching becomes its own line item. The City of Toronto notes that houses built before the mid-1950s may have a lead water service pipe, and original clay or cast-iron drains deserve a camera inspection before you finalize the budget.

Many bungalow owners price a second storey at the same time. New space through an addition typically costs $400 to $700 per square foot, so decide early whether the gut is the whole project or phase one of a larger plan.

Victorian and Edwardian semi

The old City of Toronto is built on narrow semis and row houses from the Victorian and Edwardian eras and the decades that followed, typically two or two-and-a-half storeys on narrow lots. They're handsome houses and expensive ones to gut properly.

Expect lath and plaster that comes out in heavy, dusty volume; balloon framing that needs fire blocking; knob-and-tube wiring, which ESA says was used in homes from the early 1900s to the 1940s; a likely lead water service; and brick or rubble-stone foundations that may need repair before a basement can be finished. Access is its own cost. With no driveway, materials and debris move by hand through the front door or a laneway, and a bin on the street may need City permission. Shared walls add coordination too: Toronto's interior-alterations guidance states that where party walls are involved, a building permit must be issued for all of the properties the wall separates.

For an 1,800-square-foot semi, a full gut commonly lands around $450,000 to $675,000 before HST. Our Canoe project in Toronto shows the kind of scope this tier involves: interior walls removed for open flow, an extension that enlarged the footprint, a finished basement, and custom cabinetry throughout.

Newer suburban detached

Suburban two-storey houses in Mississauga, Vaughan, Richmond Hill and the rest of York and Peel are a different calculation. Often 2,500 square feet or more, with drywall, copper or plastic supply piping and services sized for modern loads, they rarely need everything replaced. What they usually need is a new kitchen, renovated bathrooms (often four or more), new flooring and stairs, and frequently an opened-up main floor.

A mid-level renovation of this kind generally sits between $150,000 and $300,000. A full gut is mostly a function of size: at standard to mid-level finishes, a 3,000-square-foot house typically runs $600,000 to $900,000 before HST. Two-storey foyers need scaffolding for drywall and paint, original builder-grade windows are often near the end of their life, and big kitchens carry long cabinetry runs. Our Timberline renovation on Timber Trail in Aurora is an example of this scope, with load-bearing walls removed, a new kitchen with porcelain counters, new bathrooms and laundry, and a fully waterproofed, finished basement.

Condo

Condo renovations involve no structural work and no envelope, yet they rarely come in cheap per square foot. Kitchens and bathrooms take up a large share of a small floor plate, millwork does the job that closets do in a house, and building logistics eat labour hours. A full renovation of a 650 to 900-square-foot unit typically lands between $150,000 and $275,000 before HST.

The building sets the rules. Your corporation's declaration, by-laws and rules govern working hours, elevator bookings and the approvals needed before work begins, and the Condominium Authority of Ontario says most owner-proposed changes to common elements require board approval and a formal agreement under section 98 of the Condominium Act. Plumbing stacks stay where they are, concrete ceilings limit where pot lights can go, and many buildings specify acoustic underlay under hard flooring. Our Tatlin project, a one-bedroom Toronto condo, used built-in wardrobes and integrated storage to make every square foot work.

How costs differ across Toronto, North York, Etobicoke, Mississauga, Vaughan and Richmond Hill

We don't publish per-city price lists, because the same trades and suppliers work across the GTA and labour rates don't change at a municipal boundary. What changes is the house, the lot and the approvals.

Toronto, North York and Etobicoke: one permit system, three housing stocks

All three are part of the City of Toronto, so building permits run through Toronto Building and minor variances through the Committee of Adjustment. As of 2026, Toronto's fee schedule charges $11.53 per square metre for interior alterations, $18.56 per square metre for new single-family construction, and $23.20 per plumbing fixture in a single-family dwelling, with a minimum fee of $214.79 on any permit. Once an application is complete, the City lists a legislated review period of 10 business days for a house. If your design needs a minor variance, the 2026 Committee of Adjustment fee is $2,228.98 for additions and alterations to an existing dwelling of three units or fewer, and $5,011.08 for other residential dwellings of that size, and the hearing process adds months to the schedule.

What differs is the house. In the old city, our Toronto renovation team plans around party walls, hand-carried materials and heritage review; in a Heritage Conservation District, the City reviews alterations through the building permit application itself. North York's deep-lot bungalows bring basement height, bearing walls and ravine-edge lots into the budget, which is why full renovations in North York are often priced alongside a second storey. Kingsway-area houses carry plaster and older wiring, while lots along the Humber valley can fall inside regulated areas, and both shape how we scope whole-home renovations in Etobicoke.

Across all three, Toronto's Tree Protection By-law protects private trees 30 centimetres or more in diameter, measured 1.4 metres above the ground, and the City says that even as-of-right construction still needs a separate tree permit if it would injure or remove a protected tree. In ravine and natural feature protection areas, trees of any size are protected. Construction noise is restricted as well: no clearly audible construction noise before 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m. on weekdays, before 9 a.m. or after 7 p.m. on Saturdays, and none on Sundays or statutory holidays unless a noise exemption permit applies.

Mississauga

The City of Mississauga takes all building permit applications through its ePlans portal, with a pre-screen review before the full examination. The City warns that each resubmission cycle could add two or more weeks, so complete drawings matter more than a fast submission. Housing runs from older detached homes to larger houses near the lake, and in sound houses renovation budgets tend to track square footage more than hidden defects. Conservation review depends on the watershed: TRCA, whose watersheds include Etobicoke Creek and Mimico Creek, covers part of the city, and other areas fall to a different conservation authority, so a valley-edge lot may need a conservation authority permit before the building permit. We schedule full renovations in Mississauga with those review cycles built in.

Vaughan

Many Vaughan renovations involve large detached houses, where the budget is driven by area and finish expectations rather than concealed problems. The exceptions are the old village cores. Vaughan has four Heritage Conservation Districts, Kleinburg-Nashville, Maple, Thornhill and Woodbridge, and the City says properties in them need a heritage permit for work that alters or changes a property's appearance. Lots near river valleys can also fall under TRCA regulation. Our page on full renovations in Vaughan covers how we scope larger homes.

Richmond Hill

Richmond Hill accepts residential permit applications through an online portal with a pre-screening step, and asks applicants to attach TRCA documentation where a property is in a regulated area and heritage documentation where the Ontario Heritage Act applies. In the north end, residential site alteration on the Oak Ridges Moraine requires a pre-consultation meeting and may call for studies such as a Natural Heritage Evaluation. Where a house is large and structurally sound, size and finish level drive most of the budget. Our Richmond Hill renovation page covers local scope in more detail.

Conservation authority lots anywhere in the GTA

TRCA issues permits under the Conservation Authorities Act and Ontario Regulation 41/24, and development activity inside a TRCA Regulated Area, such as an addition or a replacement home, needs one unless it meets the regulation's exception criteria. For home additions, TRCA notes that your municipality cannot legally issue a building permit until a TRCA permit or clearance has been obtained. If your renovation stays inside the existing walls, confirm with TRCA rather than assume; a new deck, walkout or grading change on a regulated lot is a different conversation. TRCA's jurisdiction takes in only part of Mississauga, so on many Mississauga lots a different conservation authority, with its own permit process, is the one to ask.

Line-item breakdown: where a full-gut budget goes

Shares are ranges for a typical gut, so they won't add to exactly 100%. Design is shown against the construction budget because that's how it's usually calculated.

Design, drawings and engineering

A gut needs permit drawings at minimum, and most need more: a structural engineer for any beam or new opening, an HVAC layout sized to the renovated house, and an interior package so cabinetry, tile and lighting are priced from real selections rather than guesses. Design and drawings typically run 8 to 15% of the construction budget. It's also the cheapest place to change your mind. A moved wall on paper costs an afternoon; the same change after framing costs a week and a change order.

Permits, fees and inspections

For an interior gut in Toronto, the building permit fee itself is modest. At the 2026 alteration rate, 2,000 square feet (about 186 square metres) of work comes to roughly $2,150 before plumbing fixture and HVAC fees. The real permit costs are drawings and time: an incomplete application doesn't start the review clock, and each round of examiner comments pushes the start date. Budget separately for ESA notification fees and, if your design needs one, a Committee of Adjustment application.

Protection, demolition and disposal

Floor protection, dust walls, temporary heat in winter, and the bins. Plaster weighs far more than drywall and fills bins faster, and a semi with no driveway may need smaller bins swapped more often or a hand-carry crew. Demolition is also when we document existing conditions for the engineer and the client, with photos logged in Buildertrend so nothing that gets covered later is a mystery.

Designated substances and abatement

Ontario's Ministry of Labour says asbestos can be found in buildings built in Canada, especially those built before 1986, in materials such as residential insulation, pipe insulation and drywall compound. The construction asbestos regulation, O. Reg. 278/05, doesn't bind an owner-occupier personally, but the ministry's guide is clear that it does apply to the constructors, employers and workers on a private home. The same guide says the Occupational Health and Safety Act requires the owner of a project, including a residential owner, to prepare a list of designated substances before tendering. In practice that means a designated substance survey before demolition, and an abatement allowance in the budget until lab results come back.

Structure

Beams to open a floor plan, posts and footings to carry them, sistered or replaced joists where old drains were cut through them, levelling floors that have settled over decades, and headers for new or widened openings. On a gut, structure is less about one big beam and more about dozens of small corrections that let new floors, cabinets and tile go in flat, level and square.

Plumbing, electrical and HVAC

This is the largest technical line. Plumbing means new supply piping, new drains and venting, often a backwater valve, and in an older house a new water service from the property line in. In Toronto, a backwater valve needs a building permit and must be inspected before it's enclosed. On the electrical side, ESA advises hiring a Licensed Electrical Contractor, who files the notification of work; once the work passes, ESA issues a Certificate of Acceptance, a document ESA notes matters for insurance and resale. For heating and cooling, a gut is the moment to replace ductwork sized for a different house, add returns to upstairs bedrooms, and choose between a high-efficiency furnace, a cold-climate heat pump or a hybrid. TSSA advises that any fuel-fired appliance be installed, serviced and inspected by a TSSA-registered contractor. Mechanical design on our projects is overseen by founding partner Fred Shik, who brings two decades across mechanical engineering and project management.

Building envelope

When exterior walls are open from the inside, insulating and air sealing them costs a fraction of what it will later. The 2024 Ontario Building Code, in force since January 1, 2025, sends the energy efficiency of renovated existing buildings to Part 11 of Division B rather than the new-construction rules, so what's required depends on what you alter. Windows, attic insulation and, on some guts, the roof are where owners decide how far to go. Pair envelope work with HVAC sizing, because a tighter house needs smaller equipment and deliberate ventilation.

Interior finishes

Cabinetry, counters, tile, flooring, interior doors, trim, stairs, vanities, plumbing fixtures, lighting and paint. A mid-range Toronto kitchen runs $35,000 to $75,000 on its own, a standard bathroom $15,000 to $25,000, and a primary ensuite $35,000 to $60,000 or more, which is why finishes are the largest group. Allowances live here, so lock your selections before you sign rather than after demolition.

Site supervision and project management

Daily supervision, trade scheduling, inspection booking, ordering, quality control, cleaning, insurance and the office behind it. On a fixed-price contract it's built into the price; on cost-plus it appears as a fee. Our three founding partners bring more than 70 years of combined construction experience and run projects directly, and every job is tracked in Buildertrend, where clients see the schedule, photos, selections and change orders.

Contingency and HST

Contingency covers what nobody can see before demolition. HST at 13% applies to the taxable construction labour, materials and professional services in the budget, including any contingency you spend. Municipal fees are the main exception: the Canada Revenue Agency treats certain municipal permits and licences, and the processing of applications for them, as exempt supplies, so building permit fees and similar municipal application fees generally carry no HST, although related services such as inspections can be taxable and some municipal charges are billed plus HST. Check each fee's invoice rather than assume. On a $500,000 construction budget that includes $5,000 of municipal permit fees, tax adds about $64,350, so the budget is roughly $564,350 with tax before a single surprise.

Hidden costs in older GTA homes

The houses with the most character also hide the most cost. These are the items we price as allowances or flag before demolition in pre-1960 houses, and we go further in our guide to hidden costs in old Toronto homes.

• Knob-and-tube and undersized services. ESA describes knob-and-tube as safe if properly maintained by a Licensed Electrical Contractor, but notes that many insurers will not provide or renew coverage on homes that have it. On a gut it all comes out, and an older 60 or 100-amp service usually goes to a larger panel to carry a modern kitchen, a heat pump and an EV charger.
• Lead water service. The City owns the pipe from the watermain to the property line, and the homeowner owns the section from the property line into the house. Under the City's Priority Lead Water Service Replacement Program, owners who commit to replacing their side can ask the City to replace its side, which the City aims to do within 12 weeks of approval.
• Old drains and no backwater valve. Clay and cast-iron laterals crack, take in roots and sag. A camera inspection before you sign costs little and can move thousands of dollars from "surprise" to "planned".
• Designated substances. Plaster, old floor tile, pipe wrap and attic insulation get sampled before anyone disturbs them, and the lab result decides whether a line item stays an allowance or becomes a fixed abatement cost.
• Framing surprises and past unpermitted work. Joists cut for old drains, missing headers over widened openings, and basement suites wired by a previous owner. We find these during demolition and price the fix before it's closed in.
• Basement height and water. If the basement is too low to live in comfortably, decide early between underpinning and benching. Water staining on the foundation means waterproofing belongs in the budget, not on the wish list.
• Protected trees. A mature tree near a new walkout, an addition or even a bin location can trigger a Toronto tree permit, which is a separate application from the building permit and belongs in the schedule from day one.

How much contingency to carry

A contingency isn't padding for the contractor. On a fixed-price contract, the price covers the scope shown in the drawings and specification; the contingency is the owner's reserve for concealed conditions that couldn't be known before the walls opened, and for upgrades you choose along the way. Keep it separate from allowances, and resist spending it on finishes in the first month. Most surprises in an old house surface during demolition and rough-in, so by the time drywall is up you'll know how much of the reserve is still free.

How long a whole-house renovation takes

Permit time is the least predictable phase. The legislated review clock only runs on a complete application, and examiner comments, revisions and resubmissions stack up behind it; Mississauga's own guidance puts the cost of each extra review round at two weeks or more. A minor variance adds months on top.

On site, a gut follows a fixed sequence:

1. Protection, demolition and any designated substance abatement
2. Structural work and framing corrections, then the framing inspection
3. Plumbing, electrical and HVAC rough-in, with municipal and ESA inspections
4. Insulation and air sealing, inspected before drywall
5. Drywall, priming and the first finishes
6. Cabinetry, tile, flooring, millwork and fixtures
7. Final inspections, deficiencies and handover

The critical path in most guts isn't framing. It's long-lead items: custom cabinetry, windows, specialty tile and electrical service upgrades that need utility coordination. We order them the moment drawings are final, which is one more reason to finish design before construction starts.

Keeping the budget you signed: fixed-price vs cost-plus

There are two common ways to contract a whole-house renovation. Under a fixed price, the contractor commits to a price for a defined scope and carries the risk of its own estimating; changes are priced as written change orders before the work proceeds. Under cost-plus, you pay actual costs plus a management fee, commonly 10 to 20% of construction cost, which is flexible but leaves the final number open until the end. We work fixed-price, and we compare the two models side by side in fixed-price vs cost-plus contracts.

Whichever model you choose, these habits keep a renovation on budget:

• Finish selections before pricing. Allowances set too low are a frequent source of "overruns" that were really never budgeted.
• Insist on an itemized price. A one-line number for a gut hides what's excluded. Look for designated substances, windows, the service upgrade, HVAC equipment, permit drawings and appliance budgets as separate lines.
• Price changes before they happen. A change order should state the cost and schedule impact in writing and be approved before work proceeds. In Buildertrend, clients see and approve each one.
• Decide the big structural moves early. Moving a wall after rough-in means redoing plumbing, wiring and ductwork that have already passed inspection.
• Be wary of the outlier. A quote far below the others is usually missing permits, the electrical upgrade or contingency, and the gap comes back as change orders.

To sanity-check a number before you talk to anyone, our full renovation estimator gives a ballpark for your scope.

Rebates and subsidies worth checking in 2026

Home Renovation Savings Program

Save on Energy and Enbridge Gas deliver the Home Renovation Savings Program with support from the Ontario government. There are two paths: a single-upgrade path that skips the energy assessment, and a bundle path that starts with a home energy assessment and requires two or more upgrades. Save on Energy lists rebates including up to $7,700 for insulation, $100 per rough opening for ENERGY STAR certified windows and doors, and up to $7,500 for a cold-climate air source heat pump, based on size.

Timing is the catch for anyone planning now. Under the assessment stream's published terms, the pre-retrofit evaluation must happen before any work starts, upgrades completed before it don't qualify, and the post-retrofit evaluation must be completed within 180 days of the first one or by December 31, 2026, whichever comes first, with post-audits scheduled by November 30, 2026. If your gut starts in 2027 and you haven't had a pre-retrofit evaluation, don't build these rebates into your budget unless the program is extended or replaced. We keep a current summary in our Home Renovation Savings Program guide.

Toronto's Basement Flooding Protection Subsidy

As of May 1, 2026, the City offers up to $6,650 per property for eligible work completed on or after November 12, 2025. It covers 80% of invoiced cost up to $1,600 per backwater valve (two maximum), up to $2,250 for a sump pump, $300 for a battery backup, $400 for severing and capping foundation drains, and $500 for a home plumbing assessment. On a gut where the basement floor and drains are already open, this is one of the cheapest risk reductions available.

Worked example: full gut of a 2,000 sq ft North York bungalow

Illustrative only. This is a hypothetical house and a hypothetical budget built from typical 2026 GTA pricing. It isn't a quote and it isn't a Nexon project; real numbers depend on drawings, site conditions and your selections.

The assumptions:

• 1950s brick bungalow in North York with 1,100 square feet on the main floor and 900 square feet of finished basement
• Both levels stripped to studs and foundation walls
• Bearing wall between kitchen and living room replaced with a flush beam, new posts and footings
• Basement ceiling height already workable, so no underpinning
• Three bathrooms: main bath, a new primary ensuite and a basement three-piece
• 200-amp service, full rewire, new supply and drain piping, backwater valve
• New heating and cooling equipment, new ductwork and balanced ventilation
• 12 new windows and two exterior doors; roof assumed recent and excluded

What the example shows:

• Construction works out to about $248 per square foot, in the lower half of the $200 to $450 band, which is typical for standard to mid-level finishes on a house that needs every system replaced.
• If the contingency goes unused, the total with HST is about $604,200. HST is calculated on everything except the $2,500 of municipal permit fees, which are generally exempt; ESA and utility charges are taxed here to stay on the safe side. A 12% reserve suits a 1950s house; a 1920s semi would justify more.
• Plumbing, electrical and HVAC total $114,000, about 23% of construction, and the kitchen, bathrooms and flooring together reach about 38%. That matches the shares in the breakdown table.
• Subsidies help at the margins. The backwater valve could qualify for up to $1,600 under Toronto's flood subsidy if installed with a permit, but a 2027 start would likely miss the current Home Renovation Savings Program deadlines.

What would move the number:

• A low basement adds underpinning at roughly $35,000 to $85,000.
• Premium finishes push construction toward $350 to $450 per square foot, or $700,000 to $900,000 before design, contingency and tax.
• A second storey turns this into an addition; second-storey additions usually land around $300,000 to $550,000 all-in on their own.
• Keeping the basement as-is and limiting the scope to a mid-level main-floor renovation brings the project back toward $150,000 to $300,000.

FAQ

How much does a full home renovation cost in Toronto in 2026?

Most full home renovations in Toronto range from about $150,000 for a mid-level renovation to $250,000 to $450,000 and up for a full gut with standard finishes, with larger family homes commonly past $450,000 and premium guts passing $800,000. A full gut typically costs $200 to $450 per square foot of finished space before HST.

Is it cheaper to renovate or rebuild in the GTA?

Renovating is usually cheaper per square foot when the foundation, structure and layout are sound. A full gut runs $200 to $450 per square foot, while a ground-up custom home in Toronto typically costs $350 to $650 per square foot to build, before land, design and soft costs. The gap narrows when a renovation also needs underpinning, a second storey and a new envelope.

How much contingency should I budget for an older house?

Plan on 15% for a house built between 1940 and 1960, and 15 to 20% for anything older with plaster and original systems. Newer houses with documented renovations can usually carry 10%.

Do I need a building permit for a full gut renovation?

In almost every case, yes. Structural changes, new or relocated plumbing and HVAC alterations need a building permit from your municipality, and electrical work needs a separate notification filed with the Electrical Safety Authority.

Does HST apply to renovation costs in Ontario?

Yes. HST in Ontario is 13%, and it applies to renovation labour, materials and design services, including any contingency you end up spending. Municipal building permit fees are generally exempt, because the Canada Revenue Agency treats certain municipal permits and the processing of applications for them as exempt supplies, so leave them out of the HST line and check the invoice for any other fee.

How long does a whole house renovation take?

Allow two to four months for design, eight to fourteen weeks for permits where they're required, and five to eight months of construction for a typical full gut. Premium projects, and any design that needs a minor variance, take longer.

Can we live in the house during a full renovation?

Not during a full gut. Water, power and heat are off for stretches, and demolition dust and designated substance work make it unsafe. A mid-level renovation can sometimes be phased so one floor stays usable, at the cost of a longer schedule.

Planning a whole-house renovation in the GTA? We price full renovations as itemized, fixed-price contracts and track every selection, photo and change order in Buildertrend, with City or Town inspections at each stage. Explore our full home renovation service, call (647) 829-0272, or book a consultation to walk through your house and scope with our team.