North York, ON · 123 permits
Garden Suite in North York: declared permit values
This job is also called backyard suite or secondary dwelling. Not an estimate. These are declared construction values from building permits filed with the City of Toronto between 2024 and 2026 , for North York only. The records do not consistently itemize project scope or record final spending.
This page covers North York only. See garden suite costs across all of Toronto for the citywide median and the full sample.
The Kildrin Estimator
What the permit sample declares
This page shows the full permit sample. The result is not a quote or a prediction of final spending.
The permit records do not consistently identify the main property type for this work, so there is no reliable property-type filter. The distribution below covers all retained permits for this category in North York.
Declared construction values: middle 50%
$100,000 to $400,000
Median declared construction value $200,000
123 permits across North York, all property types.
Half of the selected permit declarations fell inside this range. The source does not consistently itemize the work included, and it does not record final spending. Treat this as a description of the selected records rather than a price for your property.
Want a real number for your address? One vetted contractor who works your postal code. Never three.
Request a quoteWhat actually moves the price
This is a small house in your back garden, and it is priced like one. Every system a house has, this needs: foundation, envelope, heating, plumbing, electrical, and a kitchen and bathroom. That is why the midpoint above sits where it does, and why quotes framed as a large shed should be treated with suspicion.
Servicing is the cost nobody expects. Water, sanitary and electrical have to reach the back of the lot, which means a trench across your garden and a connection arrangement with the main house. On a deep lot, or where the existing service is undersized, this alone is a serious line item.
Trees. Toronto protects them, and back gardens are where they are. If a protected tree sits near the build, you may need an arborist report, protection hoarding during construction, and in some cases a design change to keep clear of the root zone. This is a real constraint on what you can build and where, and it is worth establishing before you pay for a design.
Access. Everything arrives through the side yard or over the house. A narrow semi with no side access can push the price well above a detached lot with a drive, for an identical building.
Garden suite or laneway suite?
They are different permissions. A laneway suite requires your property to abut a public laneway; a garden suite does not, which is why it opened the option to far more of the city. If you have a laneway, compare both: our laneway suite page shows a different median. The permit data does not establish whether building size or access explains that difference.
What the permit record does not tell us
The record provides one applicant-declared construction value, not an itemized scope or final invoice. For a garden suite, it does not consistently show whether design, engineering, surveys, arborist work, fees or servicing are included. Confirm each item in a written quote rather than adding an unsupported percentage to the permit median.
Three questions before you sign
- What does servicing cost, specifically? Get it as its own line. It is the item most often left vague and most often expensive.
- Are there protected trees, and has an arborist looked? Before design, not after.
- Who is managing the approvals, and what is the timeline? This is a long process. Know who owns it.
The Kildrin Quote Checker
Compare with declared permit values
Enter a quote to place it on the full North York sample of 123 garden suite permits. This does not use the property selection above or judge whether the quote is high or low.
- 25th percentile declared value
- $100,000
- Median declared construction value
- $200,000
- 75th percentile declared value
- $400,000
Half of these permit declarations fell between the 25th and 75th percentile values. Treat this as a description of the records rather than a price for your property.
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We pass your details to a single vetted contractor who works your postal code. You will not be called by five companies, because we only ever sell a request once.
See how this compares across all categories. The Toronto Renovation Cost Report puts garden suite next to every other renovation category we publish — median declared value, sample size and the change against the previous two years, in one table.