Apartment Building Construction Price Index

The composite price index for apartment building construction (1997=100) was 115.0 in the fourth quarter, up 0.7% from the third quarter and 2.9% from the fourth quarter of 2001, the highest year-over-year percentage gain since an identical one in the second quarter of 2001.

Ottawa recorded the highest quarterly change (+1.3%), followed by Toronto (+1.2%), Montréal (+0.8%), Halifax (+0.6%) and Calgary and Edmonton (+0.3% each). Vancouver registered no change.

Toronto saw the highest year-over-year gain from the fourth quarter of 2001 (+4.2%), followed by Ottawa (+3.5%), Halifax (+3.0%), Calgary (+2.8%), Edmonton (+2.7%), Montréal (+2.4%) and Vancouver (+1.3%).

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.

Information on methods and data quality available in the Integrated Meta Data Base: survey numbers, including related surveys, 2317 and 2330.

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

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