Costs and Timelines

Hard Costs vs Soft Costs

Every construction project has both “hard costs” for the actual built components, and “soft costs” which are usually the design, consultant, and city permit fees. When added together these become the “Total Project Cost”

Soft Costs

  • Site Survey / Arborist

  • Designer / Architect

  • Engineers and Consultants

  • City Permit Fees and Development Fees

  • 3rd Party Fees (Electricity Service, Insurance)

  • Taxes (GST in BC)

Hard Costs

  • Demolition / Deconstruction

  • Asbestos / Lead Abatement

  • Tree Removal / Protection

  • Site Servicing (Sewer, Power, Water)

  • The Building!

  • Landscape (Soil, Plants, Pathways, Fences, Retaining)

  • Taxes (PST and GST in BC)

Laneway House Costs

Laneway house prices can vary by site, and by design, but the typical “all in” cost for a 1000sf Lanefab lane house in Vancouver is ~$600k to $650k.

Larger lane houses in the 1500sf to 2000sf range, might be $750k to $1m.

This is a Total Project Cost.
For a typical 1000sf lane house it looks like this:

  • ~$40k for Design and Consultants

  • ~$40k for City Permit Fees

  • ~$20k for Site Servicing (Power, Water, Sewer)

  • ~$20k for landscape

  • ~$20k for taxes

So, this is ~$140k non including the building itself.
The lane house building might be around $500k.

So, the total project price in this example would be $640k

Timing of Costs

For a typical custom lane house, we would work with you for around 1 year to do the design and permitting, and ~1 year for the construction.

So, in the first year the Soft Costs (~$80k) would need to be paid.

In the second year, after the permit is issued, and the construction contract is signed, then the Hard Costs would be payable in instalments over the course of the 1 year build.

Here’s more info on the Design Process and Construction Process