A 2026 CMHC report, authored by chief economist Mathieu Laberge and drawing on development charge data from 30 municipalities across Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, and Quebec, quantifies how much development charges add to the price of a new home. In Ontario, development charges represent about 8 to 16 percent of a new condo price and up to 9 percent of the cost of a single-detached home in Toronto. Charges on a two-bedroom apartment range from roughly $39,600 per unit in Ottawa to $121,500 in Markham, and single-detached charges range from about $125,000 in Pickering to more than $180,000 in Toronto. CMHC estimates that eliminating development charges entirely could add 10,000 to 16,250 housing units a year in Toronto, filling up to half the supply gap and moving prices toward 2019 affordability. CMHC also cautions that cutting fees alone is not a complete fix, because supply is constrained by approval timelines and construction capacity too.
For years the debate about development charges was mostly rhetorical. In 2026, CMHC put numbers on it. A report from the national housing agency, drawing on charge data across 30 municipalities in four provinces, measures exactly how much development charges add to what a buyer pays, and the Ontario figures are large enough to change how a developer chooses a site and a product type.
| Measure | Finding |
|---|---|
| DC share of a new condo price (Ontario) | About 8 to 16 percent |
| DC share of a single-detached home (Toronto) | Up to 9 percent |
| DC on a two-bedroom apartment | ~$39,600 in Ottawa to $121,500 in Markham |
| DC on a single-detached home | ~$125,000 in Pickering to more than $180,000 in Toronto |
| Homes unlocked if DCs eliminated (Toronto) | 10,000 to 16,250 units a year |
| Effect of that supply | Fills up to half the supply gap, prices toward 2019 affordability |
The spread between cities is the story. A two-bedroom apartment carries roughly three times the development charge in Markham that it does in Ottawa, which means two otherwise identical projects can have wildly different cost structures based only on which municipality they sit in. For a developer deciding where to deploy capital, the charge is no longer a rounding error, it is a site-selection variable.
Want the charge that applies to your specific site, not a regional average? PreBuildIQ maps any Ontario address to its approval path and applicable charges in 60 seconds.
Check my site →CMHC did not present fee elimination as a cure-all, and developers should not either. The agency's own commentary is that slashing development charges helps but does not by itself solve affordability, because housing supply is also constrained by how long approvals take and by construction capacity. A charge cut lowers the cost of a unit that still has to clear an 18 to 24 month approval process and get built in a tariff-affected cost environment. The 2026 policy wave, from the Toronto and Mississauga charge reductions to the deferral and elimination measures, addresses the fee side. It does not remove the entitlement bottleneck.
If two candidate sites sit in different municipalities, the development charge difference can exceed $80,000 per single-detached unit. Price the charge into land value before you bid, not after you own the site.
A 2026 CMHC report found development charges represent about 8 to 16 percent of a new condo price in Ontario and up to 9 percent of the cost of a single-detached home in Toronto. In dollar terms, a two-bedroom apartment carries roughly $39,600 in Ottawa to $121,500 in Markham, and a single-detached home carries about $125,000 in Pickering to more than $180,000 in Toronto.
The largest single reason is two-tier government. In regions like York, an upper-tier regional development charge stacks on top of the local municipal charge, which pushes total charges in Markham and similar municipalities well above single-tier cities such as Ottawa. Growth-funding philosophy and the timing of each city's charge schedule also contribute.
It would help but not fully fix it, according to CMHC. The agency estimates eliminating charges could add 10,000 to 16,250 units a year in Toronto, filling up to half the supply gap and moving prices toward 2019 affordability, but it cautions that approval timelines and construction capacity also constrain supply. Fee relief addresses the cost side, not the entitlement bottleneck.
The report was authored by CMHC chief economist Mathieu Laberge and draws on development charge data from 30 municipalities across Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, and Quebec. It is one of the first efforts to quantify, city by city, how much of a new home's price is attributable to development charges.
Treat the development charge as a site-selection variable, not a fixed afterthought. Pull the full charge stack for your unit type at each candidate municipality, compare totals across sites, check for an active reduction program, and discount your land bid by the charge difference so the fee does not erode your return after acquisition.
PreBuildIQ maps any Ontario address to its approval bodies, required studies, and applicable rules in 60 seconds, so you start from your site's real numbers.
Run a site report →