Winnipeg details impact fees

January 3, 2019

The City of Winnipeg will charge home builders an “impact fee” of  $59.48 per square metre ($6,412 per 1,000 square foot) for new residential construction starting January 1 under its revised Impact Fee By-Law.
The impact fee applies to new residential developments in specified new communities and emerging communities.
The initial rate in 2017 was $54.73 per square metre ($5,084 per 1,000 square feet) and it jumped to $57.47 per square metre ($5,338 per 1,000 square feet) in 2018. The fee is not applied to renovation work that involves adding a basement suite to an existing house. The fee, however, would be calculated based on the difference between the floor area of above-ground floors being converted / expanded / replaced and the floor area of the existing building prior to its conversion.
For detached secondary suites, the floor area of the detached secondary suite in an accessory structure would be exposed to the impact fee.
The typical new house in Winnipeg is nearly 2,000 square feet, so the impact fee would add about another $12,800 to overall costs.
According to the Altus Group 2019 construction cost study, the cost to build a new custom house in Winnipeg ranges from $400 to $850 per square foot, while a small no-basement house has hard costs of approximately $140 per square foot.