Here’s an interesting question: what does it cost to buy a house versus what does it cost to build a house?
It turns out words matter. The cost to build and to buy can vary dramatically in this country.
A new report prepared by the Fraser Institute looks into costs associated with a new home purchase with an eye to the price for materials as well as everything else … like land and fees.
Now, you would expect the price of timber, concrete, cabinets and so on would be less than the total cost but it raises the question of what is a reasonable spread between the two. It turns out in Vancouver, materials amount to one-fifth of the purchase price. That’s tops in the country.
Saskatchewan’s major cities fared much better. Regina ranked 12th and Saskatoon was 26th when measuring the gap between material costs and purchase price. In
Regina buyers paid 1.9 times the building cost while in Saskatoon the total price was 1.4 times the construction cost … yet another reason Saskatchewan municipalities should be campaigning to attract people from other cities.
— For more than 50 years, Paul Martin has specialized in coverage of the business and political scenes. His career has spanned radio, television and print and electronic media.
