Apartment building construction price indexes

The composite price index for apartment building construction (1997=100) was 113.4 in the second quarter, up 0.7% from the first quarter and 2.3% from the second quarter of 2001.

Toronto and Calgary recorded the highest quarterly change (both +1.0%), followed by Halifax (+0.8%), Edmonton (+0.7%), Vancouver (+0.6%), Ottawa (+0.5%) and Montréal (+0.4%).

Montréal and Calgary saw the highest year-over-year gain from the second quarter of 2001 (both +2.6%), followed by Halifax and Edmonton (both +2.5%), Toronto (+2.2%), and Ottawa and Vancouver (both +1.7%).

Note: The apartment building construction price indexes provide an indication of new construction cost changes in seven major urban areas across Canada (Halifax, Montréal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver).

Besides each of the urban areas' indexes and the composite index, there are further breakdowns of cost changes by trade groups within the building (structural, architectural, mechanical and electrical). These price indexes are derived from surveys of general and special trade-group contractors who report on the categories of costs (material, labour, equipment, taxes, overhead and profits) relevant to the detailed construction specifications included in the surveys.

Available on CANSIM: table 327-0040.

The second quarter 2002 issue of Capital expenditure price statistics (62-007-XPB, $24/$79) will be available in September.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Louise Chaîné (613-951-9606; fax: 613-951-1539; infounit@statcan.gc.ca), Prices Division.