Construction costs for a typical highrise concrete condominium in Vancouver range from $210 to $270 per square foot, while a low-rise, four-storey wood-frame condominium would cost from $130 to $165 per square foot to build, according to the 2016 Construction Cost Guide prepared by Altus Group.

However, the land component for a multi-family strata development could add from $200 to more than $400 per square foot of buildable space, depending on the location, according to a study of recent deals by RealNet Canada.

An example is a 1.3-acre multi-residential site on West 8th Avenue in Vancouver bought by Delta Group in February for $70 million. The land is zoned for density equal to three times the site coverage or a total of nearly 170,000 square feet. The gross buildable square footage equals a cost of approximately $412 per square foot.

Therefore, at this site, the cost of completing a highrise condo tower in just land and construction costs would be in the range of $660 per square foot. Building a high-quality, four-storey wood frame condominium project on the same site would require hard costs, for land and construction, of around $560 per square foot.

Altus Group noted that its annual construction cost guide excludes so-called “soft costs,” including land, property taxes, community amenity contributions and other municipal fees, site servicing, legal fees, design, landscaping, advertising, marketing, broker commissions and any developer profit.

A fall 2015 study done for the Urban Development Institute by Urban Analytics found that new concrete condominiums downtown were pre-selling for an average of $1,100 per square foot and topped an average of $825 per square foot on Vancouver’s west side. •

What Drives High Cost of Building a Vancouver Condo by Frank O’Brien | Business in Vancouver