How Much Does It Cost To Build in 2026?

Here’s How To Find Out

There is one question that will unlock the answer for you. If you call up a builder and ask how much it will cost to build a house, you may get a couple reactions. The more patient ones will ask you a few more questions, and then they’ll give you a range, and by all accounts, that’s a pretty good answer. But if you’re trying to determine whether or not you should build or buy, that range could mean the difference between building or not building. The less patient ones will politely tell you to kick rocks. What you need to know about builders, and I know, I’ve been one of them, is that they are always looking for work. I’m Aaron from Albatross Academy, and I help homeowners learn the building process, and build without getting screwed. If you know builders are always looking for work, you must at least appear to want to give them work. I am not advocating for going too far down the line with a builder and wasting their time, that is not helpful, and will infuriate them, rightfully so. But, the minute you call and say “I’m not ready to build, I don’t have a design, I just want to waste your time for awhile,” they’ll hang up. You won’t actually say that, but that’s what they’ll hear. You have to appear interested. You have to appear like you have some ducks in a row for them to give you an answer.

Here’s the reality of your quest. I can’t tell you what your regional cost per square foot metric is going to be. Building and land costs will vary wildly between Vancouver, Toronto, LA and Vermont, Hamburg or Brisbane. There’s just no way for me to tell you what it costs to build in 2026. BUT…I can tell you how to find out, so let’s go.

To get a real sense of costs in your area, you need 2 things: You need a sample size of as many data points as possible. You can’t just get data from one source, you need an aggregate of data, which means many sources, as many as you can.

Secondly, you need to standardize your metrics. Think about it, if you’re doing a survey, you need to ask the same questions to all the respondents in order to gain some kind of consistency in your conclusions. So your questions that you need to ask each builder or real estate agent or whoever you’re talking to need to be the same. Here’s what you need to do: Call a builder sometime during the middle of the day, (mornings are hectic, and end of day is hectic), tell them you’re looking at project feasibility for a project you’re doing (don’t say you’re thinking about doing, that’s too far in the future, you need to maintain their interest). And you’re just wondering I’m wondering What kind of cost per square foot you’re seeing for a 2 storey 2500 sqft 3 bedroom 2 bath slab on grade house with builder’s grade finishes?

Let’s break this down. Builders, from experience, HATE being pinned into a corner, and if you phrased your question as “how much would you charge for a….?” They’ll feel like they’re being asked to commit to something when they have too little information about. That is a different question and will make builders bristle. When you ask “what costs are you seeing?” it depersonalizes the conversation, and a builder doesn’t feel like they are being put on trial, and you’ve positioned them as the expert, being able to help you. Thus, they are far more likely to give you a more precise answer. Standardizing the rest of the question into a very familiar format for a builder will help them give you a cost fairly readily. Even if you don’t want a 2 storey, 2500 sqft house, it doesn’t matter. It will give them a way easier time trying to get you a number than if you ask for sqft pricing for “a meandering bungalow with split levels, single car garage, 4 bed with den, 2.5 bath with media room.” The answer you’ll get there is either “it depends,” or “gahhhh I don’t know, somewhere between $150-$400 per square foot” or something less polite. Which doesn’t help you at all.

So call as many builders in your area as you can, and find the average of all your answers, here’s how. If builder #1 gives you a range of $175-$250/sqft, you take the median of that, the middle number and write it down. In the case of builder #1 it’s $212.50 ($175 +$250, then divide by 2) Call builder #2, they say $200-$250, you write down $225/sqft. Builder #3 says $225-$250, you write down $237.50. I recommend getting a lot more than 3 data points, but we’ll stop here. Now you have 3 averages $212.50 + $225 + $237.50 = 675. Divide that by 3, you’re average is $225/sqft. You could even call some real estate agents, especially if they sell in new developments a lot, they can be helpful.

So you’re armed and dangerous now, best of luck. If you have further questions, please feel free to shoot me a message at aaron@albatrossacademy.ca

Good luck, thanks for reading…